IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/hlthec/v31y2022is2p22-39.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Mental health effects of education

Author

Listed:
  • Fjolla Kondirolli
  • Naveen Sunder

Abstract

We analyze the role of education as a determinant of mental health. To do this, we leverage the age‐specific exposure to an educational reform as an instrument for years of education and find that the treated cohorts gained more education. This increase in education had an effect on mental health more than 2 decades later. An extra year of education led to a lower likelihood of reporting any symptoms related to depression (11.3%) and anxiety (9.8%). More educated people also suffered less severe symptoms – depression (6.1%) and anxiety (5.6%). These protective effects are higher among women and rural residents. The effects of education on mental well‐being that we document are potentially mediated through better physical health, improved health behavior and knowledge, and an increase in women's empowerment.

Suggested Citation

  • Fjolla Kondirolli & Naveen Sunder, 2022. "Mental health effects of education," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(S2), pages 22-39, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:hlthec:v:31:y:2022:i:s2:p:22-39
    DOI: 10.1002/hec.4565
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/hec.4565
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/hec.4565?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Dan Anderberg & Helmut Rainer & Jonathan Wadsworth & Tanya Wilson, 2016. "Unemployment and Domestic Violence: Theory and Evidence," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 126(597), pages 1947-1979, November.
    2. Betsey Stevenson & Justin Wolfers, 2013. "Subjective Well-Being and Income: Is There Any Evidence of Satiation?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 103(3), pages 598-604, May.
    3. Christian Dustmann & Francesco Fasani, 2016. "The Effect of Local Area Crime on Mental Health," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 126(593), pages 978-1017, June.
    4. Joseph Sabia & Daniel Rees, 2015. "Body weight, mental health capital, and academic achievement," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 13(3), pages 653-684, September.
    5. Osili, Una Okonkwo & Long, Bridget Terry, 2008. "Does female schooling reduce fertility? Evidence from Nigeria," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(1), pages 57-75, August.
    6. Huong Thu Le & Ha Trong Nguyen, 2018. "The Impact of Maternal Mental Health Shocks on Child Health: Estimates from Fixed-Effects Instrumental Variables Models for Two Cohorts of Australian Children," American Journal of Health Economics, MIT Press, vol. 4(2), pages 185-225, Spring.
    7. Subramanian, S.V. & Subramanyam, Malavika A. & Selvaraj, Sakthivel & Kawachi, Ichiro, 2009. "Are self-reports of health and morbidities in developing countries misleading? Evidence from India," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 68(2), pages 260-265, January.
    8. Bharadwaj, Prashant & Pai, Mallesh M. & Suziedelyte, Agne, 2017. "Mental health stigma," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 159(C), pages 57-60.
    9. Johnston, David W. & Schurer, Stefanie & Shields, Michael A., 2013. "Exploring the intergenerational persistence of mental health: Evidence from three generations," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(6), pages 1077-1089.
    10. Jiang, Wei & Lu, Yi & Xie, Huihua, 2020. "Education and mental health: Evidence and mechanisms," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 180(C), pages 407-437.
    11. Flavio Cunha & James J. Heckman & Susanne M. Schennach, 2010. "Estimating the Technology of Cognitive and Noncognitive Skill Formation," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 78(3), pages 883-931, May.
    12. Grossman, Michael, 1972. "On the Concept of Health Capital and the Demand for Health," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 80(2), pages 223-255, March-Apr.
    13. Avendano, Mauricio & de Coulon, Augustin & Nafilyan, Vahé, 2020. "Does longer compulsory schooling affect mental health? Evidence from a British reform," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 183(C).
    14. Willage, Barton, 2018. "The effect of weight on mental health: New evidence using genetic IVs," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 113-130.
    15. Matthew W. Ridley & Gautam Rao & Frank Schilbach & Vikram H. Patel, 2020. "Poverty, Depression, and Anxiety: Causal Evidence and Mechanisms," NBER Working Papers 27157, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    16. Petri Böckerman & Mika Haapanen & Christopher Jepsen & Alexandra Roulet, 2021. "School Tracking and Mental Health," Journal of Human Capital, University of Chicago Press, vol. 15(2), pages 291-345.
    17. Heckman, James J., 2007. "The Economics, Technology and Neuroscience of Human Capability Formation," IZA Discussion Papers 2875, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    18. Magda Tsaneva & Uttara Balakrishnan, 2019. "The Effect of a Workfare Programme on Psychological Wellbeing in India," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 55(12), pages 2593-2609, December.
    19. Achyuta Adhvaryu & James Fenske & Anant Nyshadham, 2019. "Early Life Circumstance and Adult Mental Health," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 127(4), pages 1516-1549.
    20. Taryn Dinkelman, 2017. "Long‐run Health Repercussions of Drought Shocks: Evidence from South African Homelands," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 127(604), pages 1906-1939, September.
    21. Esther Duflo & Pascaline Dupas & Michael Kremer, 2015. "Education, HIV, and Early Fertility: Experimental Evidence from Kenya," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 105(9), pages 2757-2797, September.
    22. Lawrence F. Katz & Jeffrey R. Kling & Jeffrey B. Liebman, 2001. "Moving to Opportunity in Boston: Early Results of a Randomized Mobility Experiment," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 116(2), pages 607-654.
    23. Graham, Carol & Eggers, Andrew & Sukhtankar, Sandip, 2004. "Does happiness pay?: An exploration based on panel data from Russia," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 55(3), pages 319-342, November.
    24. Chevalier, Arnaud & Feinstein, Leon, 2006. "Sheepskin or Prozac: The Causal Effect of Education on Mental Health," IZA Discussion Papers 2231, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    25. Keats, Anthony, 2018. "Women's schooling, fertility, and child health outcomes: Evidence from Uganda's free primary education program," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 142-159.
    26. Majlesi, Kaveh, 2016. "Labor market opportunities and women's decision making power within households," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 119(C), pages 34-47.
    27. Andrew J. Oswald & Eugenio Proto & Daniel Sgroi, 2015. "Happiness and Productivity," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 33(4), pages 789-822.
    28. Petra Persson & Maya Rossin-Slater, 2018. "Family Ruptures, Stress, and the Mental Health of the Next Generation," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 108(4-5), pages 1214-1252, April.
    29. Robert Metcalfe & Nattavudh Powdthavee & Paul Dolan, 2011. "Destruction and Distress: Using a Quasi‐Experiment to Show the Effects of the September 11 Attacks on Mental Well‐Being in the United Kingdom," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 121(550), pages 81-103, February.
    30. Petra Persson & Maya Rossin-Slater, 2018. "Family Ruptures, Stress, and the Mental Health of the Next Generation: Reply," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 108(4-5), pages 1256-1263, April.
    31. Jorge M. Agüero & Maithili Ramachandran, 2020. "The Intergenerational Transmission of Schooling among the Education-Rationed," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 55(2), pages 504-538.
    32. Ohrnberger, Julius & Fichera, Eleonora & Sutton, Matt, 2017. "The relationship between physical and mental health: A mediation analysis," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 195(C), pages 42-49.
    33. Dan Anderberg & Helmut Rainer & Jonathan Wadsworth & Tanya Wilson, 2016. "Unemployment and Domestic Violence: Theory and Evidence," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 126(597), pages 1947-1979, November.
    34. Zhang, Xin & Zhang, Xiaobo & Chen, Xi, 2017. "Happiness in the air: How does a dirty sky affect mental health and subjective well-being?," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 81-94.
    35. Bahadır Dursun & Resul Cesur, 2016. "Transforming lives: the impact of compulsory schooling on hope and happiness," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 29(3), pages 911-956, July.
    36. Juliane Scheffel & Yiwei Zhang, 2019. "How does internal migration affect the emotional health of elderly parents left-behind?," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 32(3), pages 953-980, July.
    37. Paul Frijters & David W. Johnston & Michael A. Shields, 2014. "The Effect Of Mental Health On Employment: Evidence From Australian Panel Data," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 23(9), pages 1058-1071, September.
    38. Sarah Baird & Jacobus de Hoop & Berk Özler, 2013. "Income Shocks and Adolescent Mental Health," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 48(2), pages 370-403.
    39. Cutler, David M. & Lleras-Muney, Adriana, 2010. "Understanding differences in health behaviors by education," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(1), pages 1-28, January.
    40. Crespo, Laura & López-Noval, Borja & Mira, Pedro, 2014. "Compulsory schooling, education, depression and memory: New evidence from SHARELIFE," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 36-46.
    41. Jorge M. Agüero & Prashant Bharadwaj, 2014. "Do the More Educated Know More about Health? Evidence from Schooling and HIV Knowledge in Zimbabwe," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 62(3), pages 489-517.
    42. Grépin, Karen A. & Bharadwaj, Prashant, 2015. "Maternal education and child mortality in Zimbabwe," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 97-117.
    43. Carol Graham & Sergio Pinto, 2019. "Unequal hopes and lives in the USA: optimism, race, place, and premature mortality," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 32(2), pages 665-733, April.
    44. Titus J. Galama & Adriana Lleras-Muney & Hans van Kippersluis, 2018. "The Effect of Education on Health and Mortality: A Review of Experimental and Quasi-Experimental Evidence," NBER Working Papers 24225, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    45. Bilge Erten & Pinar Keskin, 2018. "For Better or for Worse?: Education and the Prevalence of Domestic Violence in Turkey," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 10(1), pages 64-105, January.
    46. Mazzonna, Fabrizio, 2014. "The long lasting effects of education on old age health: Evidence of gender differences," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 129-138.
    47. Koschorke, Mirja & Padmavati, R. & Kumar, Shuba & Cohen, Alex & Weiss, Helen A. & Chatterjee, Sudipto & Pereira, Jesina & Naik, Smita & John, Sujit & Dabholkar, Hamid & Balaji, Madhumitha & Chavan, An, 2014. "Experiences of stigma and discrimination of people with schizophrenia in India," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 149-159.
    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. Julio Torales & Iván Barrios & Osvaldo Melgarejo & Noelia Ruiz Díaz & Marcelo O’Higgins & Rodrigo Navarro & Diego Amarilla & José Almirón-Santacruz & Israel González-Urbieta & Tomás Caycho-Rod, 2024. "Hope, resilience and subjective happiness among general population of Paraguay in the post COVID-19 pandemic," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 70(3), pages 489-497, May.
    2. Abeliansky, Ana Lucia & Beulmann, Matthias & Prettner, Klaus, 2024. "Are they coming for us? Industrial robots and the mental health of workers," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 53(3).
    3. Mustafa Özer & Jan Fidrmuc, 2024. "Education and Mental Health: Causal Effects and Intra-Family Spillovers," CESifo Working Paper Series 11213, CESifo.
    4. Li, Yanan & Sunder, Naveen, 2024. "Distributional effects of education on mental health," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    5. Ezra Golberstein & Christoph Kronenberg, 2022. "Mental health economics—Social determinants and care‐use," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(S2), pages 3-5, October.
    6. Aygun, Aysun Hiziroglu & Tirgil, Abdullah, 2024. "The Causal Impact of Education on Mental Health and Explanatory Mechanisms," EconStor Preprints 280901, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    7. Stenberg, Anders & Tudor, Simona, 2023. "Field of Study and Mental Health in Adulthood," IZA Discussion Papers 16701, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

    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. Li, Yanan & Sunder, Naveen, 2024. "Distributional effects of education on mental health," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    2. Li, Yanan & Sunder, Naveen, 2021. "What doesn’t kill her, will make her depressed," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 43(C).
    3. Avendano, Mauricio & de Coulon, Augustin & Nafilyan, Vahé, 2020. "Does longer compulsory schooling affect mental health? Evidence from a British reform," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 183(C).
    4. Dursun, Bahadır & Cesur, Resul & Mocan, Naci, 2018. "The Impact of Education on Health Outcomes and Behaviors in a Middle-Income, Low-Education Country," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 94-114.
    5. Gabriella Conti, 2013. "The Developmental Origins of Health Inequality," Research on Economic Inequality, in: Health and Inequality, volume 21, pages 285-309, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    6. Marta Golin, 2022. "The effect of broadband Internet on the gender gap in mental health: Evidence from Germany," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(S2), pages 6-21, October.
    7. Bahadır Dursun & Resul Cesur & Inas R. Kelly, 2022. "Mandatory Schooling of Girls Improved Their Children's Health: Evidence from Turkey's 1997 Education Reform," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 41(3), pages 824-858, June.
    8. Jiang, Wei & Lu, Yi & Xie, Huihua, 2020. "Education and mental health: Evidence and mechanisms," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 180(C), pages 407-437.
    9. Benedikt Janzen, 2022. "Temperature and Mental Health: Evidence from Helpline Calls," Papers 2207.04992, arXiv.org, revised Nov 2022.
    10. Bhashkar Mazumder & Maria Fernanda Rosales-Rueda & Margaret Triyana, 2023. "Social Interventions, Health, and Well-Being: The Long-Term and Intergenerational Effects of a School Construction Program," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 58(4), pages 1097-1140.
    11. Getik, Demid & Meier, Armando N., 2022. "Peer gender and mental health⁎," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 197(C), pages 643-659.
    12. Giulietti, Corrado & Vlassopoulos, Michael & Zenou, Yves, 2022. "Peers, gender, and long-term depression," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 144(C).
    13. Bellés-Obrero, Cristina & Cabrales, Antonio & Jiménez-Martín, Sergi & Vall-Castelló, Judit, 2023. "Women’s education, fertility and children’ health during a gender equalization process: Evidence from a child labor reform in Spain," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    14. Colantone, Italo & Crinò, Rosario & Ogliari, Laura, 2019. "Globalization and mental distress," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 119(C), pages 181-207.
    15. Stephanie Psaki & Nicole Haberland & Barbara Mensch & Lauren Woyczynski & Erica Chuang, 2022. "Policies and interventions to remove gender‐related barriers to girls' school participation and learning in low‐ and middle‐income countries: A systematic review of the evidence," Campbell Systematic Reviews, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 18(1), March.
    16. Achyuta Adhvaryu & James Fenske & Anant Nyshadham, 2019. "Early Life Circumstance and Adult Mental Health," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 127(4), pages 1516-1549.
    17. Cui, Ying & Liu, Hong & Zhao, Liqiu, 2019. "Mother's education and child development: Evidence from the compulsory school reform in China," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 47(3), pages 669-692.
    18. Mateus Dias & Luiz Felipe Fontes, 2024. "The Effects of a Large-Scale Mental Health Reform: Evidence from Brazil," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 16(3), pages 257-289, August.
    19. Hofmarcher, Thomas, 2021. "The effect of education on poverty: A European perspective," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    20. Mathias Huebener, 2017. "Intergenerational Effects of Education on Risky Health Behaviours and Long-Term Health," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 1709, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.

    More about this item

    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:wly:hlthec:v:31:y:2022:i:s2:p:22-39. 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/jhome/5749 .

    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.