IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/hlthec/v31y2022is2p6-21.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The effect of broadband Internet on the gender gap in mental health: Evidence from Germany

Author

Listed:
  • Marta Golin

Abstract

Mental health disorders are among the leading causes of disease burden worldwide. Recently, attention has been drawn to the Internet and social media as determinants of the increase in mental health conditions in recent years. In this paper, I analyze the causal effect of broadband Internet access on the mental health of adults. I leverage confidential information on the coordinates of respondents to the German Socio‐Economic Panel (GSOEP) and exploit technological features of the German telecommunication network to instrument for broadband Internet access. The results are suggestive that broadband Internet leads to worse mental health for women (primarily those aged 17–30) but not for men, thus widening the gender gap in mental disorders. Looking at sub‐facets of mental health, broadband access leads to a worsening of socializing behavior and ability to cope with emotional problems. The fact that the results are concentrated among the younger cohorts of women is suggestive that high Internet usage intensity amplifies the negative effect of broadband internet access on mental health.

Suggested Citation

  • 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.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:hlthec:v:31:y:2022:i:s2:p:6-21
    DOI: 10.1002/hec.4570
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/hec.4570
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/hec.4570?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. Bauernschuster, Stefan & Falck, Oliver & Woessmann, Ludger, 2014. "Surfing alone? The internet and social capital: Evidence from an unforeseeable technological mistake," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 73-89.
    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. Marcus, Jan, 2013. "The effect of unemployment on the mental health of spouses – Evidence from plant closures in Germany," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(3), pages 546-558.
    4. Sacks, Daniel W. & Stevenson, Betsey & Wolfers, Justin, 2012. "The New Stylized Facts about Income and Subjective Well-Being," IZA Discussion Papers 7105, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. Sascha O. Becker & Ludger Woessmann, 2018. "Social Cohesion, Religious Beliefs, and the Effect of Protestantism on Suicide," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 100(3), pages 377-391, July.
    6. Luca Braghieri & Ro'ee Levy & Alexey Makarin, 2022. "Social Media and Mental Health," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 112(11), pages 3660-3693, November.
    7. Betsey Stevenson & Justin Wolfers, 2009. "The Paradox of Declining Female Happiness," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 1(2), pages 190-225, August.
    8. repec:pri:cepsud:125krueger is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Michael DiNardi & Melanie Guldi & David Simon, 2019. "Body weight and Internet access: evidence from the rollout of broadband providers," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 32(3), pages 877-913, July.
    10. Currie, Janet & Stabile, Mark, 2006. "Child mental health and human capital accumulation: The case of ADHD," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(6), pages 1094-1118, November.
    11. McDool, Emily & Powell, Philip & Roberts, Jennifer & Taylor, Karl, 2020. "The internet and children’s psychological wellbeing," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    12. Francesco C. Billari & Osea Giuntella & Luca Stella, 2019. "Does broadband Internet affect fertility?," Population Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 73(3), pages 297-316, September.
    13. 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.
    14. Betsey Stevenson & Justin Wolfers, 2006. "Bargaining in the Shadow of the Law: Divorce Laws and Family Distress," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 121(1), pages 267-288.
    15. Ofer Malamud & Cristian Pop-Eleches, 2011. "Home Computer Use and the Development of Human Capital," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 126(2), pages 987-1027.
    16. Pamela Y. Collins & Vikram Patel & Sarah S. Joestl & Dana March & Thomas R. Insel & Abdallah S. Daar & Isabel A. Bordin & E. Jane Costello & Maureen Durkin & Christopher Fairburn & Roger I. Glass & Wa, 2011. "Grand challenges in global mental health," Nature, Nature, vol. 475(7354), pages 27-30, July.
    17. 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.
    18. Geraci, Andrea & Nardotto, Mattia & Reggiani, Tommaso & Sabatini, Fabio, 2022. "Broadband Internet and social capital," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 206(C).
    19. Silvia Mendolia, 2014. "The impact of husband’s job loss on partners’ mental health," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 12(2), pages 277-294, June.
    20. 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.
    21. Jonathan de Quidt & Johannes Haushofer, 2016. "Depression for Economists," NBER Working Papers 22973, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    22. McInerney, Melissa & Mellor, Jennifer M. & Nicholas, Lauren Hersch, 2013. "Recession depression: Mental health effects of the 2008 stock market crash," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(6), pages 1090-1104.
    23. Roberto Mosquera & Mofioluwasademi Odunowo & Trent McNamara & Xiongfei Guo & Ragan Petrie, 2020. "The economic effects of Facebook," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 23(2), pages 575-602, June.
    24. Dhaval Dave & Inas Rashad & Jasmina Spasojevic, 2008. "The Effects of Retirement on Physical and Mental Health Outcomes," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 75(2), pages 497-523, August.
    25. Johannes Haushofer & Jeremy Shapiro, 2016. "The Short-term Impact of Unconditional Cash Transfers to the Poor: ExperimentalEvidence from Kenya," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 131(4), pages 1973-2042.
    26. Billari, Francesco C. & Giuntella, Osea & Stella, Luca, 2018. "Broadband internet, digital temptations, and sleep," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 153(C), pages 58-76.
    27. Nadia Campaniello & Theodoros M. Diasakos & Giovanni Mastrobuoni, 2017. "Rationalizable Suicides: Evidence from Changes in Inmates’ Expected Length of Sentence," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 15(2), pages 388-428.
    28. Douglas Almond & Bhashkar Mazumder, 2011. "Health Capital and the Prenatal Environment: The Effect of Ramadan Observance during Pregnancy," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 3(4), pages 56-85, October.
    29. Malamud, Ofer & Cueto, Santiago & Cristia, Julian & Beuermann, Diether W., 2019. "Do children benefit from internet access? Experimental evidence from Peru," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 138(C), pages 41-56.
    30. Donati, Dante & Durante, Ruben & Sobbrio, Francesco & Zejcirovic, Dijana, 2022. "Lost in the Net? Broadband Internet and Youth Mental Health," IZA Discussion Papers 15202, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    31. Rotondi, Valentina & Stanca, Luca & Tomasuolo, Miriam, 2017. "Connecting alone: Smartphone use, quality of social interactions and well-being," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 17-26.
    32. Victoria Baranov & Sonia Bhalotra & Pietro Biroli & Joanna Maselko, 2020. "Maternal Depression, Women's Empowerment, and Parental Investment: Evidence from a Randomized Controlled Trial," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 110(3), pages 824-859, March.
    33. 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.
    34. Hunt Allcott & Luca Braghieri & Sarah Eichmeyer & Matthew Gentzkow, 2020. "The Welfare Effects of Social Media," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 110(3), pages 629-676, March.
    35. Daniel Kahneman & Alan B. Krueger & David Schkade & Norbert Schwarz & Arthur A. Stone, 2006. "Would You Be Happier If You Were Richer? A Focusing Illusion," Working Papers 77, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Center for Economic Policy Studies..
    36. Jürgen Schupp & Gert G. Wagner, 2002. "Maintenance of and Innovation in Long-Term Panel Studies: The Case of the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP)," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 276, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    37. 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.
    38. Cornelius Christian & Lukas Hensel & Christopher Roth, 2019. "Income Shocks and Suicides: Causal Evidence From Indonesia," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 101(5), pages 905-920, December.
    39. 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.
    40. Dhaval Dave & R. Inas Rashad & Jasmina Spasojevic, 2008. "The Effects of Retirement on Physical and Mental Health Outcomes," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 75(2), pages 497-523, October.
    41. Daniel Kahneman & Alan B. Krueger & David Schkade & Norbert Schwarz & Arthur A. Stone, 2006. "Would You Be Happier If You Were Richer? A Focusing Illusion," Working Papers 77, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Center for Economic Policy Studies..
    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. Golin, Marta & Romarri, Alessio, 2022. "Broadband Internet and Attitudes Towards Migrants: Evidence from Spain," IZA Discussion Papers 15804, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Climent Quintana-Domeque & Jingya Zeng & Xiaohui Zhang, 2023. "Internet and mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic: evidence from the UK," Oxford Open Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 2, pages 433-459.
    3. Xinxin Ma, 2023. "Internet usage and the income gap between self‐employed individuals and employees: Evidence from China," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(3), pages 1509-1536, August.
    4. Cowan, Benjamin & Jones, Todd R. & Swigert, Jeffrey, 2024. "Parental and Student Time Use Around the Academic Year," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 224(C), pages 66-110.
    5. Zhongwu Li & Fengzhi Lu, 2024. "The power of Internet: from the perspective of women’s bargaining power," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-12, December.
    6. Hongyun Zheng & Wanglin Ma & Junpeng Li & Julio Botero, 2023. "Relationship between Internet Use and Negative Affect," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 18(4), pages 1693-1713, August.
    7. 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.
    8. Ignacio Amate-Fortes & Almudena Guarnido-Rueda & Diego Martínez-Navarro & Francisco J. Oliver-Márquez, 2023. "Social Isolation, Healthy Habits, Inequality and Mental Health in the United States," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 18(4), pages 1617-1643, August.
    9. Kang, Songman & Son, Hyelim & Song, B.K., 2023. "The effect of housing price inequality on mental health," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    10. Arenas-Arroyo, Esther & Fernández-Kranz, Daniel & Nollenberger, Natalia, 2022. "High Speed Internet and the Widening Gender Gap in Adolescent Mental Health: Evidence from Hospital Records," IZA Discussion Papers 15728, 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. Cornelius Christian & Lukas Hensel & Christopher Roth, 2019. "Income Shocks and Suicides: Causal Evidence From Indonesia," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 101(5), pages 905-920, December.
    2. Dante Donati & Ruben Durante & Francesco Sobbrio & Dijana Zejcirovic, 2022. "Lost in the Net? Broadband Internet and Youth Mental Health," CESifo Working Paper Series 9676, CESifo.
    3. Fjolla Kondirolli & Naveen Sunder, 2022. "Mental health effects of education," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(S2), pages 22-39, October.
    4. Sabatini, Fabio, 2023. "The Behavioral, Economic, and Political Impact of the Internet and Social Media: Empirical Challenges and Approaches," IZA Discussion Papers 16703, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. 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.
    6. Luca Braghieri & Ro'ee Levy & Alexey Makarin, 2022. "Social Media and Mental Health," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 112(11), pages 3660-3693, November.
    7. Geraci, Andrea & Nardotto, Mattia & Reggiani, Tommaso & Sabatini, Fabio, 2022. "Broadband Internet and social capital," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 206(C).
    8. Siddique, Abu & Islam, Asad & Mozumder, Tanvir Ahmed & Rahman, Tabassum & Shatil, Tanvir, 2022. "Forced Displacement, Mental Health, and Child Development: Evidence from the Rohingya Refugees," SocArXiv b4fc7, Center for Open Science.
    9. 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.
    10. Alloush, M., 2018. "Income, Psychological Well-being, and the Dynamics of Poverty: Evidence from South Africa," 2018 Annual Meeting, August 5-7, Washington, D.C. 274223, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    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. Pignatti, Clemente & Parolin, Zachary, 2023. "The Effects of an Unconditional Cash Transfer on Mental Health in the United States," IZA Discussion Papers 16237, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    13. Colantone, Italo & Crinò, Rosario & Ogliari, Laura, 2019. "Globalization and mental distress," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 119(C), pages 181-207.
    14. Wang, Yao & Wang, Chunchao & Zhang, Rui, 2023. "Parental non-cognitive abilities and child mental health," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    15. Michaela Paffenholz, 2024. "Adolescents’ Mental Health and Human Capital: The Role of Socioeconomic Rank," CRC TR 224 Discussion Paper Series crctr224_2024_526, University of Bonn and University of Mannheim, Germany.
    16. Alloush, Mo & Bloem, Jeffrey R., 2022. "Neighborhood violence, poverty, and psychological well-being," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    17. Ruiz Sánchez, Gerardo, 2021. "Monthly suicide rates during the COVID-19 pandemic: Evidence from Japan," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 207(C).
    18. 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.
    19. Sofia Amaral‐Garcia & Mattia Nardotto & Carol Propper & Tommaso Valletti, 2024. "Information and vaccine hesitancy: The role of broadband Internet," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 33(9), pages 1936-1948, September.
    20. Sulin Sardoschau, 2019. "Children of War: In-Utero Stress and Child Health in Iraq," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) halshs-02383137, HAL.

    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:6-21. 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.