Spousal Death, Mental Health and Survivor Benefits

Mara Barschkett () and Tréguier, Julie ()
Additional contact information
Mara Barschkett: University of Bonn
Tréguier, Julie: DIW Berlin

No 18385, IZA Discussion Papers from IZA Network @ LISER

Abstract: In this paper, we estimate the causal effect of social security income on mental health. We focus on widowhood, a life event associated with large and persistent mental health declines, and exploit a reform of the Dutch survivor benefits system that introduced cohort-based restrictions in benefit eligibility. Using administrative data, we find that reduced access to survivor benefits increases antidepressant use by 9%, accounting for 35% of the overall rise in antidepressant use following spousal death. A mechanism analysis shows that survivor benefits stabilize mental health by smoothing living standards, highlighting the potential welfare gains from well-targeted income support policies.

Keywords: widowhood; survivor benefits; mental health; antidepressant use; income security (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H55 I12 J14 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026-03
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://docs.iza.org/dp18385.pdf (application/pdf)

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:iza:izadps:dp18385

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in IZA Discussion Papers from IZA Network @ LISER Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Mark Fallak ().