Mental health and labour productivity

Nigel Rice, Jennifer Roberts and Cristina Sechel

Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 2025, vol. 236, issue C

Abstract: We present novel evidence of the effect of mental health on productivity using a direct measure of productivity from the COVID-19 modules of the UK Household Longitudinal Study. We employ spatial variation in COVID-19 deaths as an instrumental variable and supplement results by computing bounds by considering coefficient stability to observable factors to infer the influence of unobservables. Our findings reveal a substantive positive relationship between poor mental health and decreased productivity. Our estimates suggest productivity losses of around 54 min per week (on average) for individuals who report a decline in mental health.

Keywords: Mental health; Productivity; UKHLS (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I12 J14 J24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jeborg:v:236:y:2025:i:c:s0167268125001945

DOI: 10.1016/j.jebo.2025.107075

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