IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecolet/v199y2021ics0165176521000069.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

COVID-19 and women’s health: Examining changes in mental health and fertility

Author

Listed:
  • Silverio-Murillo, Adan
  • Hoehn-Velasco, Lauren
  • Balmori de la Miyar, Jose Roberto
  • Rodríguez, Abel

Abstract

Researchers have speculated that the economic and social consequences of COVID19 will harm women’s health. This paper tests this claim in the immediate aftermath of Mexico City’s COVID-19 stay-at-home order using call-center data. We use an event-study design to track calls for fertility decisions and mental health. Our findings indicate that mental health worsened during the pandemic. Anxiety calls increased substantially, with the effect being most pronounced for those over 45. Calls related to abortion fell in number, while pregnancy calls remained stable. The abortion effect is most pronounced for women between 15 and 30 and those with a high school degree.

Suggested Citation

  • Silverio-Murillo, Adan & Hoehn-Velasco, Lauren & Balmori de la Miyar, Jose Roberto & Rodríguez, Abel, 2021. "COVID-19 and women’s health: Examining changes in mental health and fertility," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 199(C).
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecolet:v:199:y:2021:i:c:s0165176521000069
    DOI: 10.1016/j.econlet.2021.109729
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0165176521000069
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.econlet.2021.109729?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Armbruster, Stephanie & Klotzbücher, Valentin, 2020. "Lost in lockdown? COVID-19, social distancing, and mental health in Germany," Discussion Paper Series 2020-04, University of Freiburg, Wilfried Guth Endowed Chair for Constitutional Political Economy and Competition Policy.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Nobanee, Haitham & Azmi, Wajahat & Chakraborty, Dipanwita & Hamill, Philip Anthony & Nghiem, Xuan-Hoa, 2023. "Can we breathe a sigh of relief now? The impact of First Republic Bank takeover by JP Morgan on the US equity markets," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 58(PB).
    2. Silverio-Murillo, Adan & Hoehn-Velasco, Lauren & Rodriguez Tirado, Abel & Balmori de la Miyar, Jose Roberto, 2021. "COVID-19 blues: Lockdowns and mental health-related google searches in Latin America," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 281(C).
    3. Nadya Y. Rivera Rivera & Laura McGuinn & Erika Osorio-Valencia & Sandra Martinez-Medina & Lourdes Schnaas & Rosalind J. Wright & Martha Maria Téllez-Rojo & Robert O. Wright & Marcela Tamayo-Ortiz & Ma, 2021. "Changes in Depressive Symptoms, Stress and Social Support in Mexican Women during the COVID-19 Pandemic," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(16), pages 1-11, August.
    4. Karen X. Yan, 2023. "How do the stay-at-home (SAH) orders affect air quality? Evidence from the northeastern USA," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 64(5), pages 2085-2103, May.
    5. M. Amelia Gibbons & Tommy E. Murphy & Martín A. Rossi, 2021. "Confinement and intimate partner violence," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 74(3), pages 349-361, August.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Silverio-Murillo, Adan & Hoehn-Velasco, Lauren & Rodriguez Tirado, Abel & Balmori de la Miyar, Jose Roberto, 2021. "COVID-19 blues: Lockdowns and mental health-related google searches in Latin America," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 281(C).
    2. Beland, Louis-Philippe & Brodeur, Abel & Haddad, Joanne & Mikola, Derek, 2020. "Covid-19, Family Stress and Domestic Violence: Remote Work, Isolation and Bargaining Power," GLO Discussion Paper Series 571, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    3. Mathias Huebener & Sevrin Waights & C. Katharina Spiess & Nico A. Siegel & Gert G. Wagner, 2021. "Parental well-being in times of Covid-19 in Germany," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 19(1), pages 91-122, March.
    4. Eiji Yamamura & Yoshiro Tsustsui, 2021. "School closures and mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 34(4), pages 1261-1298, October.
    5. Bahal, Girish & Iyer, Sriya & Shastry, Kishen & Shrivastava, Anand, 2023. "Religion, Covid-19 and mental health," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 160(C).
    6. Resta, Emanuela & Logroscino, Giancarlo & Tafuri, Silvio & Peter, Preethymol & Noviello, Chiara & Costantiello, Alberto & Leogrande, Angelo, 2024. "The ESG Determinants of Mental Health Index Across Italian Regions: A Machine Learning Approach," MPRA Paper 121204, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Louis-Philippe Béladn & Abel Brodeur & Joanne Haddad & Derek Mikola, 2021. "Determinants of Family Stress and Domestic Violence: Lessons from the COVID-19 Outbreak," Canadian Public Policy, University of Toronto Press, vol. 47(3), pages 439-459, September.
    8. Tetsuya Tamaki & Wataru Nozawa & Akinori Kitsuki, 2024. "How did you perceive the lifestyle changes caused by the COVID-19 pandemic?," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-14, December.
    9. YAMAMURA, Eiji & Tsutsui, Yoshiro, 2020. "Impact of closing schools on mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic: Evidence using panel data from Japan," MPRA Paper 105023, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Irena Jindrichovska & Erginbay Uğurlu, 2024. "Effect of COVID-19 on the mutual trade between Germany and the Visegrad Four," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-14, December.
    11. Bau, Natalie & Khanna, Gaurav & Low, Corinne & Shah, Manisha & Sharmin, Sreyashi & Voena, Alessandra, 2022. "Women’s well-being during a pandemic and its containment," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 156(C).
    12. Khadija Shams & Alexander Kadow, 2023. "COVID-19 and Subjective Well-Being in Urban Pakistan in the Beginning of the Pandemic: A Socio-Economic Analysis," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 18(1), pages 93-113, February.
    13. Benedikt Janzen, 2022. "Temperature and Mental Health: Evidence from Helpline Calls," Papers 2207.04992, arXiv.org, revised Nov 2022.
    14. Mizuki Komura & Hikaru Ogawa, 2022. "COVID-19, marriage, and divorce in Japan," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 20(3), pages 831-853, September.
    15. Colella, Sara & Dufourt, Frédéric & Hildebrand, Vincent A. & Vivès, Rémi, 2023. "Mental health effects of COVID-19 lockdowns: A Twitter-based analysis," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 51(C).
    16. David J. Hebert & Michael D. Curry, 2022. "Optimal lockdowns," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 193(3), pages 263-274, December.
    17. Onur Altindag & Bilge Erten & Pinar Keskin, 2022. "Mental Health Costs of Lockdowns: Evidence from Age-Specific Curfews in Turkey," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 14(2), pages 320-343, April.
    18. Louis-Philippe Beland & Abel Brodeur & Derek Mikola & Taylor Wright, 2020. "COVID-19, Occupation Tasks and Mental Health in Canada," Carleton Economic Papers 20-07, Carleton University, Department of Economics, revised 30 Jun 2020.
    19. Sung, Nakil & Kim, Minchang, 2023. "COVID-19 and changes in content usage behavior: The case of South Korea," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(1).
    20. Anderes, Marc & Pichler, Stefan, 2023. "Mental health effects of social distancing in Switzerland," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 51(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Women; Fertility; Mental health; Health; COVID-19; Mexico;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J12 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J18 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Public Policy

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ecolet:v:199:y:2021:i:c:s0165176521000069. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/ecolet .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.