The Impact of the Coronavirus Lockdown on Mental Health: Evidence from the US

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Authors
Adams-Prassl, A.
Boneva, T.
Golin, M.
Rauh, C.
Publication Date
2020-05-07
Series
Cambridge Working Papers in Economics
Cambridge-INET Working Paper Series
Publisher
Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge
Type
Working Paper
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Citation
Adams-Prassl, A., Boneva, T., Golin, M., & Rauh, C. (2020). The Impact of the Coronavirus Lockdown on Mental Health: Evidence from the US. https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.81910
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 US. 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.
Keywords
Mental health, Gender, Recessions, Coronavirus
Identifiers
CWPE2037, C-INET2021
This record's DOI: https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.81910
This record's URL: https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/334492
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All Rights Reserved
Licence URL: https://www.rioxx.net/licenses/all-rights-reserved/
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