Mental Health and Abortions among Young Women: Time-varying Unobserved Heterogeneity, Health Behaviors, and Risky Decisions

In this paper, we provide causal evidence on abortions and risky health behaviors as determinants of mental health development among young women. Using administrative in- and outpatient records from Sweden, we apply a novel grouped fixed-effects estimator proposed by Bonhomme and Manresa (2015) to allow for time-varying unobserved heterogeneity. We show that the positive association obtained from standard estimators shrinks to zero once we control for grouped time-varying unobserved heterogeneity. We estimate the group-specific profiles of unobserved heterogeneity, which reflect differences in unobserved risk to be diagnosed with a mental health condition. We then analyze mental health development and risky health behaviors other than unwanted pregnancies across groups. Our results suggest that these are determined by the same type of unobserved heterogeneity, which we attribute to the same unobserved process of decision-making. We develop and estimate a theoretical model of risky choices and mental health, in which mental health disparity across groups is generated by different degrees of self-control problems. Our findings imply that mental health concerns cannot be used to justify restrictive abortion policies. Moreover, potential self-control problems should be targeted as early as possible to combat future mental health consequences

The Effect of Retirement on Mental Health: Indirect Treatment Effects and Causal Mediation

People experience multiple changes in their lives after retirement which can affect their mental health. In this paper, we examine the mediating impact of grandparental childcare in the effect of retirement on mental health among elderly women in Europe. We apply a semi-parametric estimation strategy to disentangle the total effect of retirement on mental health into a direct effect, and an indirect effect mediated through grandparental childcare. We find that retirement directly leads to a significant increase in mental health problems. However, this effect is completely offset by a significant reduction in mental health problems generated by a mediating effect of grandparental childcare. As a result, the total effect of retirement on mental health is close to zero. We then examine country-specific heterogeneity in the provision of public childcare and find that the mediating effect unfolds its full compensating strength in countries in which grandparental childcare is supplemental to public childcare. Our results have important implications for designing old-age social policies

Reservation Wages and Labor Supply

We test what survey measures of the reservation wage reveal about individual labor supply, i.e., an individual’s willingness to substitute leisure by consumption. To this end, we combine the reservation wage measure from a large labor market survey with the reservation wage for a one-hour job that we elicit in an online experiment. We find that these two measures are highly correlated. On average, the experimental reservation wage increases by 50 Cents for every Euro increase in the survey measure

Identification of structural models in the presence of measurement error due to rounding in survey responses.

Distortions in the elicitation of economic variables arise frequently. A common problem in household surveys is that reported values exhibit a significant degree of rounding. We interpret rounding as a filter that allows limited information about the relationship of interest to pass. We argue that rounding is an active decision of the survey respondent, and propose a general structural model that helps to explain some of the typical distortions that arise out of this active decision. Specifically, we assume that there is insufficient ability of individuals to acquire, process and recall information, and that rational individuals aim at using the scarce resources they devote to a survey in an optimal fashion. This model implies selection and places some structure on the selection equation. We use the formal model to correct for some of the distorting effects of rounding on the relationship of interest, using all the data available. Finally, we show how the concepts developed in this paper can be applied in consumer demand analysis by exploiting a controlled survey experiment, and obtain plausible results

Codebook and documentation of the panel study 'Labour Market and Social Security' (PASS) : Volume I: Introduction and overview. Wave 2 (2007/2008)

"The panel study 'Labour Market and Social Security' (PASS), established by the Institute for Employment Research (IAB), is a new dataset for labour market, welfare state and poverty research in Germany, creating a new empirical basis for the scientific community and for policy advice. This Datenreport provides an overview of the second survey wave, for which 12,487 individuals were interviewed in 8,429 households between December 2007 and July 2008. 10,114 individuals and 7,342 households were interviewed for the second time in the context of PASS. The spectrum of questions and the design of PASS are intended to close gaps in the existing stock of data. PASS has three main characteristics that extend analysis potential beyond that of the Federal Employment Agency's administrative data: 1. The panel takes the household context into account - including the situation before and after receipt of Unemployment Benefit II. 2. The panel is complete in that it covers all groups of persons and all employment biographies, not only people in dependent employment, unemployed people and those in need of assistance. The dataset also provides information on the status during phases of economic inactivity, self-employment or employment as civil servants. 3. The panel collects additional or significantly more detailed data on relevant characteristics such as attitudes, employment potential or job-search behaviour." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en)) Additional Information Questionnaires of the second wave. Here you can find the German version. Further information about the panel study "Labour Market and Social Security".IAB-Haushaltspanel, Datengewinnung, Erhebungsmethode, Stichprobe, Panel - Methode, Datenaufbereitung

The CoViD-19 pandemic and mental health: Disentangling crucial channels

Since the start of the CoViD-19 pandemic, a major source of concern has been its effect on mental health. Using pre-pandemic information and have customized questionnaires in the Dutch LISS panel, we investigate how mental health in the working population has evolved along with the most prominent risk factors associated with the pandemic. Overall, mental health decreased sharply with the onset of the first lockdown but recovered fairly quickly. In December 2020, levels of mental health are comparable to those in November 2019. We show that perceived risk of infection, labor market uncertainty, and emotional loneliness are all associated with worsening mental health. Both the initial drop and subsequent recovery are larger for parents of children below the age of 12. Among parents, the patterns are particularly pronounced for fathers if they shoulder the bulk of additional care. Mothers' mental health takes a particularly steep hit if they work from home and their partner is designated to take care during the additional hours

Financial outcomes of adolescent and young adult cancer survivors:A longitudinal population-based registry study

Background: The patterns and determinants of long-term income among adolescent and young adult (AYA) cancer survivors, and the differences compared with peers, have not yet been fully explored. This study investigated the long-term effects of cancer on the income of AYA cancer survivors. Methods: The Netherlands Cancer Registry identified all AYA cancer patients (aged 18-39 years) diagnosed in 2013 and alive 5 years postdiagnosis. Clinical data of the selected AYA patients were linked to individual, administrative real-world labor market data of Statistics Netherlands. The control group consisted of a random sample of individuals of the same age, sex, and migration background without cancer. Data on 2434 AYA cancer patients and 9736 controls were collected annually from 2011 until 2019. Changes in income level were measured and compared with the control group using difference-in-difference regression models. Results: AYA cancer survivors experience, on average, an 8.5% decrease in annual earnings, relative to the control population. The effects are statistically significant and permanent (P < .01). Younger AYAs (those aged 18-25 years 15.5% income reduction), married cancer survivors (12.3%), females (11.6%), those diagnosed with stage IV disease (38.1%), and central nervous system (15.7%) cancer patients experienced the largest decline in income, on average, relative to controls, all else constant. Conclusion: Although dependent on the sociodemographic and clinical characteristics, a cancer diagnosis at AYA age has significant implications on the income of cancer patients. Awareness of vulnerable groups and the development of policies to mitigate the financial impact of cancer are critical

Codebuch und Dokumentation des 'Panel Arbeitsmarkt und soziale Sicherung' (PASS) : Welle 2 (2007/2008)

"The panel study 'Labour Market and Social Security' (PASS), established by the Institute for Employment Research (IAB), is a new dataset for labour market, welfare state and poverty research in Germany, creating a new empirical basis for the scientific community and for policy advice. This "Datenreport" written in German provides an overview of the second survey wave, for which 12,487 individuals were interviewed in 8,429 households between December 2007 and July 2008. 10,114 individuals and 7,342 households were interviewed for the second time in the context of PASS. The spectrum of questions and the design of PASS are intended to close gaps in the existing stock of data. PASS has three main characteristics that extend analysis potential beyond that of the Federal Employment Agency's administrative data: 1. The panel takes the household context into account - including the situation before and after receipt of Unemployment Benefit II. 2. The panel is complete in that it covers all groups of persons and all employment biographies, not only people in dependent employment, unemployed people and those in need of assistance. The dataset also provides information on the status during phases of economic inactivity, self-employment or employment as civil servants. 3. The panel collects additional or significantly more detailed data on relevant characteristics such as attitudes, employment potential or job-search behaviour." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en)) The english version of this "Datenreport" you can find here: http://fdz.iab.de/187/section.aspx/Publikation/k100607a04 Additional Information Hier finden Sie Band I des Datenreports: Einführung und Überblick Hier finden Sie Band II: Codebuch Haushaltsdatensatz Hier finden Sie Band III: Codebuch Personendatensatz Hier finden Sie Band IV: Codebuch Spelldaten, Registerdaten und Gewichte Fragebögen der 2. Welle Hier finden Sie die englische Version des Datenreports. Weitere Informationen zum Panel "Arbeitsmarkt und Soziale Sicherung".IAB-Haushaltspanel, Datengewinnung, Erhebungsmethode, Stichprobe, Panel - Methode, Datenaufbereitung