The impact of the coronavirus lockdown on mental health: evidence from the United States-Reference-Cited by-同舟云学术

The impact of the coronavirus lockdown on mental health: evidence from the United States

Published:2022-01-01 Issue:109 Volume:37 Page:139-155
ISSN:0266-4658
Container-title:Economic Policy
language:en
Short-container-title:

Author:

Adams-Prassl Abi¹,Boneva Teodora¹,Golin Marta¹,Rauh Christopher¹^ORCID

Affiliation:

1. University of Oxford, UK; University of Bonn, Germany; University of Zurich, Switzerland; Trinity College, University of Cambridge, UK

Abstract

Abstract The coronavirus outbreak has caused significant disruptions to people’s lives. We exploit variation in lockdown measures across states to document the impact of stay-at-home orders on mental health using real-time survey data in the United States. We find that the lockdown measures lowered mental health by 0.083 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 61%. The negative effect on women’s mental health cannot be explained by an increase in financial worries or caring responsibilities.

Funder

Economic and Social Research Council

University of Oxford

University of Zurich

Cambridge INET

Cambridge Keynes Fund

Publisher

Oxford University Press (OUP)

Subject

Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law,Economics and Econometrics

Link

https://academic.oup.com/economicpolicy/advance-article-pdf/doi/10.1093/epolic/eiac002/42552465/eiac002.pdf