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Social assistance and mental health: evidence from longitudinal administrative data on pharmaceutical consumption

Dackehag, Margareta LU orcid ; Ellegård, Lina Maria LU ; Gerdtham, Ulf-Göran LU orcid and Nilsson, Therese LU (2020) In Applied Economics 52(20). p.2165-2177
Abstract
This paper adds to the small literature on the role of welfare benefits and mental health by studying the relationship between uptake of Social Assistance Benefit (SAB) and objective mental health measures. We use rich longitudinal administrative data on income, unemployment benefits and psychopharmaceutic prescriptions (antidepressants, anxiolytics, and hypnotics) for more than 140,000 Swedes in 2006–2012. Relative to earlier studies focusing on subjective mental health, an advantage of our approach is that we use longitudinal administrative data that do not suffer from non-response, under-reporting and self-justification biases. While we document a strong positive association between SAB and psychopharmaca consumption in ordinary least... (More)
This paper adds to the small literature on the role of welfare benefits and mental health by studying the relationship between uptake of Social Assistance Benefit (SAB) and objective mental health measures. We use rich longitudinal administrative data on income, unemployment benefits and psychopharmaceutic prescriptions (antidepressants, anxiolytics, and hypnotics) for more than 140,000 Swedes in 2006–2012. Relative to earlier studies focusing on subjective mental health, an advantage of our approach is that we use longitudinal administrative data that do not suffer from non-response, under-reporting and self-justification biases. While we document a strong positive association between SAB and psychopharmaca consumption in ordinary least squares models, fixed effects estimates indicate that most of the association is due to unobserved individual-specific predisposition. Insofar as a relationship remains in the fixed effect models, it is driven by highly educated men. This result is consistent with earlier quantitative studies using survey data and with qualitative research suggesting that SAB uptake may be particularly stigmatizing for individuals with a higher initial socioeconomic position. (Less)
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author
; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Applied Economics
volume
52
issue
20
pages
13 pages
publisher
Routledge
external identifiers
  • scopus:85074765711
ISSN
1466-4283
DOI
10.1080/00036846.2019.1683149
project
Public Management Research
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
4be74023-8243-4cee-ad3b-b5c00b6bdeab
date added to LUP
2019-11-05 10:16:39
date last changed
2024-05-15 00:53:52
@article{4be74023-8243-4cee-ad3b-b5c00b6bdeab,
  abstract     = {{This paper adds to the small literature on the role of welfare benefits and mental health by studying the relationship between uptake of Social Assistance Benefit (SAB) and objective mental health measures. We use rich longitudinal administrative data on income, unemployment benefits and psychopharmaceutic prescriptions (antidepressants, anxiolytics, and hypnotics) for more than 140,000 Swedes in 2006–2012. Relative to earlier studies focusing on subjective mental health, an advantage of our approach is that we use longitudinal administrative data that do not suffer from non-response, under-reporting and self-justification biases. While we document a strong positive association between SAB and psychopharmaca consumption in ordinary least squares models, fixed effects estimates indicate that most of the association is due to unobserved individual-specific predisposition. Insofar as a relationship remains in the fixed effect models, it is driven by highly educated men. This result is consistent with earlier quantitative studies using survey data and with qualitative research suggesting that SAB uptake may be particularly stigmatizing for individuals with a higher initial socioeconomic position.}},
  author       = {{Dackehag, Margareta and Ellegård, Lina Maria and Gerdtham, Ulf-Göran and Nilsson, Therese}},
  issn         = {{1466-4283}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{20}},
  pages        = {{2165--2177}},
  publisher    = {{Routledge}},
  series       = {{Applied Economics}},
  title        = {{Social assistance and mental health: evidence from longitudinal administrative data on pharmaceutical consumption}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00036846.2019.1683149}},
  doi          = {{10.1080/00036846.2019.1683149}},
  volume       = {{52}},
  year         = {{2020}},
}