Mental Health Therapy as a Core Strategy for Increasing Human Capital: Evidence from Ghana

Nathan Barker, Gharad T. Bryan, Dean Karlan, Angela Ofori-Atta and Christopher Udry

No 29407, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: We study the impact of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for individuals selected from the general population of poor households in rural Ghana. Results from 2-3 months after a randomized intervention show strong impacts on mental and physical health, cognitive and socioemotional skills, and downstream economic outcomes. We find no evidence of heterogeneity by baseline mental distress; we argue that this is because CBT can improve human capital for a general population of poor individuals through two pathways. First, CBT reduces vulnerability to deteriorating mental health; and second, CBT directly improves bandwidth, increasing cognitive and socioemotional skills and hence economic outcomes.

JEL-codes: H0 H00 I0 I00 I3 J0 J01 J10 J21 J24 O0 O1 O10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-afr, nep-hea and nep-neu
Note: DEV EH LS PE
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Working Paper: Mental Health Therapy as a Core Strategy for Increasing Human Capital: Evidence from Ghana (2021)
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