Mental Health Costs of Lockdowns: Evidence from Age-Specific Curfews in Turkey

Onur Altindag, Bilge Erten and Pinar Keskin ()

American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 2022, vol. 14, issue 2, 320-43

Abstract: Using a strict, age-specific lockdown order for adults aged 65 and older in Turkey, we examine the mental health consequences of an extended period of tight mobility restrictions on senior adults. Adopting a regression discontinuity design, we find that the curfew-induced decline in mobility substantially worsened mental health outcomes, including somatic and nonsomatic symptoms of mental distress (approximately 0.2 standard deviation). Exploring potential channels, we document an increase in social and physical isolation, with no evidence of robust changes in labor market outcomes or intrahousehold conflict for this subpopulation.

JEL-codes: D13 I18 I21 J14 O15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (24)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/app.20200811 (application/pdf)
https://doi.org/10.3886/E131981V1 (text/html)
https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/app.20200811.appx (application/pdf)
https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/app.20200811.ds (application/zip)
Access to full text is restricted to AEA members and institutional subscribers.

Related works:
Working Paper: Mental Health Costs of Lockdowns: Evidence from Age-Specific Curfews in Turkey (2021)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aea:aejapp:v:14:y:2022:i:2:p:320-43

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.aeaweb.org/journals/subscriptions

DOI: 10.1257/app.20200811

Access Statistics for this article

American Economic Journal: Applied Economics is currently edited by Alexandre Mas

More articles in American Economic Journal: Applied Economics from American Economic Association Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Michael P. Albert ().