The effect of adult psychological therapies on employment and earnings: Evidence from England

Kaludia Rzepnicka, Emma Sharland, Marta Rossa, Ted Dolby, Ekaterina Oparina, Rob Saunders, Daniel Ayoubkhani and Vahe Nifilyan

CEP Discussion Papers from Centre for Economic Performance, LSE

Abstract: People suffering from common mental disorders (CMD) such as depression and anxiety are more likely to be economically inactive. Psychological therapies are highly effective at treating CMDs but less is known about their impact on long-term labour market outcomes. Using national treatment programme data in England, NHS Talking Therapies (NHSTT), with unique linkage to administration data on employment and census records, we estimated the causal effects of NHSTT on employment and earnings. Overall, completing treatment led to a maximum average increase of £17 in monthly earnings (year two) and likelihood of paid employment by 1.5 percentage points (year seven). Those 'Not working, seeking work' saw a maximum average increase in pay of £63 per month (year seven) and likelihood of paid employment by 3.1 percentage points (year four). Our findings demonstrate the economic benefits of treating CMDs, and how investing in mental health can impact labour market participation.

Keywords: mental health; employment; earnings; policy evaluation; psychological therapies (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025-01-28
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-lma
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://cep.lse.ac.uk/pubs/download/dp2070.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
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:cep:cepdps:dp2070

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in CEP Discussion Papers from Centre for Economic Performance, LSE
Bibliographic data for series maintained by (cep.info@lse.ac.uk).