The Effect of Children on Depression in Old Age

Eberhard Kruk ()
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Eberhard Kruk: Munich Center for the Economics of Aging (MEA), Postal: Amalienstr. 33, D-80799 Munich

No 11249, MEA discussion paper series from Munich Center for the Economics of Aging (MEA) at the Max Planck Institute for Social Law and Social Policy

Abstract: This article investigates the causal relationship between the number of biological children and mental health of elderly Europeans. Speci fically, we ask whether additional children improve or threaten parents' mental health status. Our identi cation draws on two natural experiments that exogenously increase the number of children: multiple births and the sex composition of the fi rst two children. This setup allows us to identify the e ffect of expected and desired and unexpected additional children on mental health. Using a large and extensive survey of elderly Europeans, we fi nd that additional children can exert a negative causal e ffect on mental health of females namely on the likelihood of depression and the use of antidepressant drugs. There is no evidence for a causal eff ect of having additional children on the probability to suff er from depression for elder men.

JEL-codes: I12 J13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011-11-19
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