The effect of broadband Internet on the gender gap in mental health: Evidence from Germany

Marta Golin

Health Economics, 2022, vol. 31, issue S2, 6-21

Abstract: Mental health disorders are among the leading causes of disease burden worldwide. Recently, attention has been drawn to the Internet and social media as determinants of the increase in mental health conditions in recent years. In this paper, I analyze the causal effect of broadband Internet access on the mental health of adults. I leverage confidential information on the coordinates of respondents to the German Socio‐Economic Panel (GSOEP) and exploit technological features of the German telecommunication network to instrument for broadband Internet access. The results are suggestive that broadband Internet leads to worse mental health for women (primarily those aged 17–30) but not for men, thus widening the gender gap in mental disorders. Looking at sub‐facets of mental health, broadband access leads to a worsening of socializing behavior and ability to cope with emotional problems. The fact that the results are concentrated among the younger cohorts of women is suggestive that high Internet usage intensity amplifies the negative effect of broadband internet access on mental health.

Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (12)

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1002/hec.4570

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:wly:hlthec:v:31:y:2022:i:s2:p:6-21

Access Statistics for this article

Health Economics is currently edited by Alan Maynard, John Hutton and Andrew Jones

More articles in Health Economics from John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().