The Impact of the Coronavirus Lockdown on Mental Health: Evidence from the US

Abi Adams-Prassl, Teodora Boneva, Marta Golin and Christopher Rauh
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Abi Adams-Prassl: University of Oxford

No 2020-030, Working Papers from Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Working Group

Abstract: The coronavirus outbreak has caused significant disruptions to people's lives. We document the impact of state-wide stay-at-home orders on mental health using real time survey data in the US. The lockdown measures lowered mental health by 0.085 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 66%. The negative effect on women's mental health cannot be explained by an increase in financial worries or childcare responsibilities.

Keywords: mental health; gender; recessions; coronavirus (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I10 I14 I18 I30 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea
Note: ECI
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (52)

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http://humcap.uchicago.edu/RePEc/hka/wpaper/Adams- ... us-mental-health.pdf First version, May 6, 2020 (application/pdf)

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Working Paper: The Impact of the Coronavirus Lockdown on Mental Health: Evidence from the US (2020)
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