Mental Health and Labor Market Outcomes

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This project investigates the relationship between mental health disorders and an individual's labor market outcomes, such as labor force participation, job turnover, hours worked, and earnings, using both cross-sectional and panel data techniques. The project will pay special attention to low income populations and the effect of mental health status on participation in welfare, disability, and other public assistance programs. This project builds on data from a new national survey, Healthcare for Communities (HCC), which is unique in its broad coverage of both mental health and economic measures. Its policy relevance stems from the ability to study recent market and policy effects and to trace the consequences from labor market outcomes through the mediating effects of insurance status and income to access to care and utilization for individuals with mental disorders. Achieving a better understanding of the cross-sectional and dynamic relationships between mental health and labor market outcomes is of central importance to policy makers in the mental health field. In the employment-based US private health insurance system, labor market outcomes and income affect access to care and treatment through their effect on insurance and income. In addition, labor market outcomes are central functional outcomes in themselves. By providing better information on the complex relationship between mental illness and labor market outcomes using the most recent data, this project will provide new insights on the consequences of recent and ongoing policy and market changes, including employment-based mental health parity mandates and social welfare policy for low income populations.