The impact of anti-corruption on mental health: Evidence from China

Jiawei Fu and Congyi Zhou

Journal of Comparative Economics, 2024, vol. 52, issue 4, 925-950

Abstract: Mental health directly influences individuals’ behaviors and decision-making processes, particularly for government officials grappling with mental health issues. This paper utilizes field data from China’s anti-corruption campaign to evaluate the campaign’s impact on mental health. Our findings indicate that depressive symptoms, as measured by CES-D8 scores, have risen significantly among government employees by 0.4 units per 100 increase in corruption investigation cases. This result suggests that the anti-corruption campaign within a year could potentially result in an average increase of 29% in depressive symptoms among government employees. Interestingly, no comparable effect was found among the general Chinese population. This discrepancy could be attributed to the transformative impact of the anti-corruption campaign on the internal governmental work environment, engendering stress among its employees.

Keywords: Anti-corruption; Depressive symptoms; Mental health (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D73 I10 I18 P30 P36 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jcecon:v:52:y:2024:i:4:p:925-950

DOI: 10.1016/j.jce.2024.07.003

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