IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/uwp/jhriss/v48y2013ii1p370-403.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Income Shocks and Adolescent Mental Health

Author

Listed:
  • Sarah Baird
  • Jacobus de Hoop
  • Berk Özler

Abstract

We investigate the effects of a positive income shock on mental health among adolescent girls using evidence from a cash transfer experiment in Malawi. Offers of cash transfers strongly reduced psychological distress among baseline schoolgirls. However, these large beneficial effects declined with increases in the transfer amount offered to the parents conditional on regular school attendance by the adolescent girls. Improved physical health, increased school attendance, personal consumption, and leisure contributed to the effects. There was also strong evidence of increased psychological distress among untreated baseline schoolgirls in treatment areas. All of these effects dissipated soon after the program ended.

Suggested Citation

  • 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.
    • Handle: RePEc:uwp:jhriss:v:48:y:2013:ii:1:p:370-403
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://jhr.uwpress.org/cgi/reprint/48/2/370
    Download Restriction: A subscripton is required to access pdf files. Pay per article is available.
    ---><---

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

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Stillman, Steven & McKenzie, David & Gibson, John, 2009. "Migration and mental health: Evidence from a natural experiment," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 677-687, May.
    2. Miriam Bruhn & David McKenzie, 2009. "In Pursuit of Balance: Randomization in Practice in Development Field Experiments," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 1(4), pages 200-232, October.
    3. Jason M. Fletcher, 2010. "Adolescent depression and educational attainment: results using sibling fixed effects," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 19(7), pages 855-871, July.
    4. Christine Eibner & William N. Evans, 2005. "Relative Deprivation, Poor Health Habits, and Mortality," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 40(3).
    5. Jishnu Das & Quy-Toan Do & Jed Friedman & David McKenzie, 2008. "Mental Health Patterns and Consequences: Results from Survey Data in Five Developing Countries," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank Group, vol. 23(1), pages 31-55, August.
    6. Fletcher, Jason & Wolfe, Barbara, 2008. "Child mental health and human capital accumulation: The case of ADHD revisited," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(3), pages 794-800, May.
    7. Mikael Lindahl, 2005. "Estimating the Effect of Income on Health and Mortality Using Lottery Prizes as an Exogenous Source of Variation in Income," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 40(1).
    8. 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.
    9. Duncan Thomas, 2008. "Psychological Health Before, During, and After an Economic Crisis: Results from Indonesia, 1993--2000," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank Group, vol. 23(1), pages 57-76, November.
    10. Ssewamala, Fred M. & Han, Chang-Keun & Neilands, Torsten B., 2009. "Asset ownership and health and mental health functioning among AIDS-orphaned adolescents: Findings from a randomized clinical trial in rural Uganda," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 69(2), pages 191-198, July.
    11. Manuela Angelucci & Giacomo De Giorgi, 2009. "Indirect Effects of an Aid Program: How Do Cash Transfers Affect Ineligibles' Consumption?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 99(1), pages 486-508, March.
    12. Eisenberg Daniel & Golberstein Ezra & Hunt Justin B, 2009. "Mental Health and Academic Success in College," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 9(1), pages 1-37, September.
    13. Edward Miguel & Michael Kremer, 2004. "Worms: Identifying Impacts on Education and Health in the Presence of Treatment Externalities," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 72(1), pages 159-217, January.
    14. Flores, Carlos A. & Flores-Lagunes, Alfonso, 2009. "Identification and Estimation of Causal Mechanisms and Net Effects of a Treatment under Unconfoundedness," IZA Discussion Papers 4237, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    15. Jason M. Fletcher, 2008. "Adolescent depression: diagnosis, treatment, and educational attainment," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 17(11), pages 1215-1235, November.
    16. Eiji Mangyo & Albert Park, 2011. "Relative Deprivation and Health: Which Reference Groups Matter?," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 46(3), pages 459-481.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Owen O'Donnell & Eddy Van Doorslaer & Tom Van Ourti, 2013. "Health and Inequality," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 13-170/V, Tinbergen Institute.
    2. Cornaglia, Francesca & Crivellaro, Elena & McNally, Sandra, 2015. "Mental health and education decisions," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 1-12.
    3. Karin A A De Ridder & Kristine Pape & Roar Johnsen & Turid Lingaas Holmen & Steinar Westin & Johan Håkon Bjørngaard, 2013. "Adolescent Health and High School Dropout: A Prospective Cohort Study of 9000 Norwegian Adolescents (The Young-HUNT)," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(9), pages 1-7, September.
    4. Benjamin W. Cowan & Zhuang Hao, 2021. "Medicaid expansion and the mental health of college students," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(6), pages 1306-1327, June.
    5. Danusha Jayawardana & Brenda Gannon & Jenny Doust & Gita D. Mishra, 2023. "Excess healthcare costs of psychological distress in young women: Evidence from linked national Medicare claims data," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(3), pages 715-734, March.
    6. D. Mark Anderson & Resul Cesur & Erdal Tekin, 2015. "Youth Depression And Future Criminal Behavior," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 53(1), pages 294-317, January.
    7. Jeffrey S. DeSimone, 2010. "Sadness, Suicidality and Grades," NBER Working Papers 16239, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Sabia, Joseph J. & Rees, Daniel I., 2011. "Individual heterogeneity and reverse causality in the relationship between migraine headache and educational attainment," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 30(5), pages 913-923, October.
    9. Jason M. Fletcher, 2014. "The Effects Of Childhood Adhd On Adult Labor Market Outcomes," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 23(2), pages 159-181, February.
    10. Andrew M. Jones, 2007. "Identification of treatment effects in Health Economics," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 16(11), pages 1127-1131.
    11. Arulsamy, Karen & Delaney, Liam, 2022. "The impact of automatic enrolment on the mental health gap in pension participation: Evidence from the UK," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    12. Eisenberg Daniel & Golberstein Ezra & Hunt Justin B, 2009. "Mental Health and Academic Success in College," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 9(1), pages 1-37, September.
    13. Fletcher, Jason M. & Lehrer, Steven F., 2009. "The Effect of Adolescent Health on Educational Outcomes: Causal Evidence using ‘Genetic Lotteries’ between Siblings," CLSSRN working papers clsrn_admin-2009-40, Vancouver School of Economics, revised 26 Jun 2009.
    14. Johnston, David W. & Schurer, Stefanie & Shields, Michael A., 2011. "Evidence on the Long Shadow of Poor Mental Health across Three Generations," IZA Discussion Papers 6014, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    15. Kate Baldwin & Rikhil R. Bhavnani, 2013. "Ancillary Experiments: Opportunities and Challenges," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2013-024, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    16. Le, Kien & Nguyen, My, 2020. "Shedding light on maternal education and child health in developing countries," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).
    17. Jones A.M & Rice N, 2009. "Econometric Evaluation of Health Policies," Health, Econometrics and Data Group (HEDG) Working Papers 09/09, HEDG, c/o Department of Economics, University of York.
    18. Marcel Fafchamps & Ana Vaz & Pedro C. Vicente, 2020. "Voting and Peer Effects: Experimental Evidence from Mozambique," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 68(2), pages 567-605.
    19. Solomon, Keisha T. & Dasgupta, Kabir, 2022. "State mental health insurance parity laws and college educational outcomes," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    20. Andrew M. Jones, 2007. "Identification of treatment effects in Health Economics," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 16(11), pages 1127-1131, November.

    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:uwp:jhriss:v:48:y:2013:ii:1:p:370-403. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: . General contact details of provider: http://jhr.uwpress.org/ .

    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: (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://jhr.uwpress.org/ .

    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.