The impact of the coronavirus lockdown on mental health: evidence from the United States
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Publication Date
2022-05-24Journal Title
Economic Policy
ISSN
0266-4658
Publisher
Oxford University Press (OUP)
Type
Article
This Version
AM
Metadata
Show full item recordCitation
Adams-Prassl, A., Boneva, T., Golin, M., & Rauh, C. (2022). The impact of the coronavirus lockdown on mental health: evidence from the United States. Economic Policy https://doi.org/10.1093/epolic/eiac002
Abstract
<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title>
<jats:p>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.</jats:p>
Identifiers
External DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/epolic/eiac002
This record's URL: https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/332244
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