The impact of the coronavirus lockdown on mental health: evidence from the United States

Abi Adams-Prassl, Teodora Boneva, Marta Golin and Christopher Rauh

Economic Policy, 2022, vol. 37, issue 109, 139-155

Abstract: The coronavirus outbreak has caused significant disruptions to people’s lives. We exploit variation in lockdown measures across states to document the impact of stay-at-home orders on mental health using real-time survey data in the United States. We find that the lockdown measures lowered mental health by 0.083 standard deviations. This large negative effect is entirely driven by women. As a result of the lockdown measures, the existing gender gap in mental health has increased by 61%. The negative effect on women’s mental health cannot be explained by an increase in financial worries or caring responsibilities.

Keywords: I10; I14; I18; I30 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (34)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oup:ecpoli:v:37:y:2022:i:109:p:139-155.

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