IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/tin/wpaper/20220027.html

Human Capital Formation: The Effect of a Miscarriage on Mental Health, Labour Market, and Family Outcomes

Author

Listed:
  • Sara Rellstab

    (Erasmus University Rotterdam)

  • Pieter Bakx

    (Erasmus University Rotterdam)

  • Pilar Garci‡-G—mez

    (Erasmus University Rotterdam)

Abstract

We investigate the effect of a miscarriage on mental health care use, labour market and family outcomes of women and their partners using Dutch linked ad- ministrative data. Miscarriages are common and largely random conditional on age. We estimate event study models using women with a completed pregnancy as a control group. A first miscarriage increases womenÕs use of mental health ther- apy compared to the control group. These effects disappear over time. Partners are equally likely to use any mental health care as the control group. There are differences in labour market outcomes and probability of living together.

Suggested Citation

  • Sara Rellstab & Pieter Bakx & Pilar Garci‡-G—mez, 2022. "Human Capital Formation: The Effect of a Miscarriage on Mental Health, Labour Market, and Family Outcomes," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 22-027/V, Tinbergen Institute.
    • Handle: RePEc:tin:wpaper:20220027
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://papers.tinbergen.nl/22027.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bettina Siflinger, 2017. "The Effect of Widowhood on Mental Health ‐ an Analysis of Anticipation Patterns Surrounding the Death of a Spouse," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(12), pages 1505-1523, December.
    2. Rellstab, Sara & Bakx, Pieter & García-Gómez, Pilar & van Doorslaer, Eddy, 2020. "The kids are alright - labour market effects of unexpected parental hospitalisations in the Netherlands," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    3. Janys, L.; & Siflinger, B.;, 2019. "Abortion and mental health: The role of selection," Health, Econometrics and Data Group (HEDG) Working Papers 19/15, HEDG, c/o Department of Economics, University of York.
    4. Moser, Petra & Biasi, Barbara & Dahl, Michael S, 2021. "Career Effects of Mental Health," CEPR Discussion Papers 16401, Centre for Economic Policy Research.
    5. Gerard J. Berg & Petter Lundborg & Johan Vikström, 2017. "The Economics of Grief," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 127(604), pages 1794-1832, September.
    6. Henrik Kleven & Camille Landais & Johanna Posch & Andreas Steinhauer & Josef Zweimüller, 2019. "Child Penalties across Countries: Evidence and Explanations," AEA Papers and Proceedings, American Economic Association, vol. 109, pages 122-126, May.
    7. Sarah Miller & Laura R. Wherry & Diana Greene Foster, 2023. "The Economic Consequences of Being Denied an Abortion," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 15(1), pages 394-437, February.
    8. Jonathan Gardner & Andrew J. Oswald, 2006. "Do divorcing couples become happier by breaking up?," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 169(2), pages 319-336, March.
    9. Sun, Liyang & Abraham, Sarah, 2021. "Estimating dynamic treatment effects in event studies with heterogeneous treatment effects," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 225(2), pages 175-199.
    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. Albertini, Mattia & Bakx, Pieter & Mazzonna, Fabrizio, 2025. "Health and Labor Market Consequences of Low-Value Care: The Role of Practice Style," IZA Discussion Papers 17771, IZA Network @ LISER.
    2. Janys, Lena & Siflinger, Bettina, 2024. "Mental health and abortions among young women: time-varying unobserved heterogeneity, health behaviors, and risky decisions," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 238(1).
    3. Hamid Noghanibehambari & David Slusky & Hoa Vu, 2025. "From Access to Wellness: Early Life Exposure to Abortion Legalization and the Next Generation’s Health," NBER Working Papers 33571, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Wen, Jiayi & Huang, Haili, 2024. "Parental health penalty on adult children’s employment: Gender differences and long-term consequences," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(C).
    5. Freise, Diana & Schmitz, Hendrik & Westphal, Matthias, 2022. "Late-career unemployment and cognitive abilities," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    6. Nieto, Adrián, 2022. "Can subsidies to permanent employment change fertility decisions?," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    7. Gørtz, Mette & Sander, Sarah & Sevilla, Almudena, 2025. "Does the child penalty strike twice?," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 172(C).
    8. Marchionni, Mariana & Pedrazzi, Julián, 2025. "The last hurdle? Unyielding motherhood effects in the context of declining gender inequality in Latin America," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 195(C).
    9. Lu, Runjing & Ye, Zihan, 2023. "Roe v. Rates: Reproductive Healthcare and Public Financing Costs," SocArXiv 7t5jz, Center for Open Science.
    10. Dench, Daniel & Pineda-Torres, Mayra & Myers, Caitlin, 2024. "The effects of post-Dobbs abortion bans on fertility," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 234(C).
    11. Arold, W. Benjamin & Woessmann, Ludger & Zierow, Larissa, 2022. "Can Schools Change Religious Attitudes? Evidence from German State Reforms of Compulsory Religious Education," IZA Discussion Papers 14989, IZA Network @ LISER.
    12. Ester Lazzari & Valeria Zurla, 2024. "The Effect of Parental Caregiving on the Fertility Expectations of Adult Children," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 40(1), pages 1-22, December.
    13. Malisa, Amedeus, 2024. "Grand-parenthood and retirement," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    14. Jones, Kelly & Wilcher, Britni, 2024. "Reducing maternal labor market detachment: A role for paid family leave," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    15. Ria Ivandic & Anne Sophie Lassen, 2023. "Gender Gaps From Labor Market Shocks," Upjohn Working Papers 23-387, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.
    16. Elena Bassoli & Peter Eibich & Emma Zai, 2025. "The mental health consequences of spousal bereavement," MPIDR Working Papers WP-2025-026, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany.
    17. Ivandić, Ria & Lassen, Anne Sophie, 2023. "Gender gaps from labor market shocks," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    18. repec:osf:socarx:7t5jz_v1 is not listed on IDEAS
    19. Cheung, T. Terry & Kan, Kamhon & Yang, Tzu-Ting, 2025. "Parental responses to child disability: Gender differences and relative earnings," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 174(C).
    20. Dor Leventer, 2026. "Identification of Child Penalties," Papers 2602.07486, arXiv.org, revised May 2026.
    21. Jones, Kelly M. & Pineda-Torres, Mayra, 2024. "TRAP’d Teens: Impacts of abortion provider regulations on fertility & education," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 234(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • I1 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:tin:wpaper:20220027. 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: Tinbergen Office +31 (0)10-4088900 (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/tinbenl.html .

    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.