Economic insecurity: a socioeconomic determinant of mental health

Publication type

Journal Article

Authors

Publication date

December 15, 2018

Summary:

Economic insecurity is an emerging topic that is increasingly relevant to the labour markets of developed economies. This paper uses data from the British Household Panel Survey to assess the causal effect of various aspects of economic insecurity on mental health in the UK. The results support the idea that economic insecurity is an emerging socioeconomic determinant of mental health, although the size of the effect varies across measures of insecurity. In particular, perceived future risks are more damaging to mental health than realised volatility, insecurity is more damaging for men, and the negative effect of insecurity is constant throughout the income distribution. Importantly, these changes in mental health are experienced without future unemployment necessarily occurring.

Published in

SSM - Population Health

Volume and page numbers

Volume: 6 , p.184 -194

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmph.2018.09.006

ISSN

23528273

Subjects

Notes

Open Access

Under a Creative Commons license

#525870

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