Getting Stuck in the Blues: Persistence of Mental Health Problems in Australia

John Roy and Stefanie Schurer
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John Roy: Victoria University of Wellington

No 7451, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: Do episodes of mental health problems cause future mental health problems, and if yes, how strong are these dynamics? We quantify the degree of persistence in mental health problems using nationally-representative, longitudinal data from Australia and system GMM-IV and correlated random effects approaches are applied to separate true from spurious state dependence. Our results suggest only a moderate degree of persistence in mental health problems when assuming that persistence is constant across the mental health distribution once individual-specific heterogeneity is accounted for. However, individuals who fell once below a threshold that indicates an episode of depression are up to five times more likely to experience such a low score again a year later, indicating a strong element of state dependence in depression. Low income is a strong risk factor in state dependence for both men and women, which has important policy implications.

Keywords: mental health; depression and anxiety; dynamic panel data models; GMM-IV; HILDA (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C23 I14 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 32 pages
Date: 2013-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cwa and nep-hea
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (32)

Published - published in: Health Economics, 2013, 22(9), 1139-1157.

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Related works:
Journal Article: GETTING STUCK IN THE BLUES: PERSISTENCE OF MENTAL HEALTH PROBLEMS IN AUSTRALIA (2013)
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