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Author: Cseh, Attila
Resulting in 2 citations.
1. Cseh, Attila
Effects of Depressive Symptoms on Earnings
Southern Economic Journal 75,2 (October 2008): 383-409.
Also: http://www.thefreelibrary.com/The+effects+of+depressive+symptoms+on+earnings.-a0188352376
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Allen Press, Inc.
Keyword(s): Depression (see also CESD); Gender Differences; High School; Modeling, Fixed Effects; Wages

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Conventional wisdom is that depression lowers productivity. The magnitude of this effect has been of interest to economists and other social scientists as well as medical researchers. In this paper, I take advantage of the longitudinal nature of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 to investigate the effects from a dynamic perspective and to control for unobserved heterogeneity in a fixed-effects framework. Exploiting the fact that the data set provides information about depressive symptoms in multiple years, I am able to study how changes in depressive symptoms impact productivity. My results indicate that taking personality into account is important in estimating how depression affects wages. While ordinary least-squares results render a strong negative significant effect to depressive symptom measures (especially in the men's sample), taking unobserved personal characteristics into account reduces the effects of these measures.
Bibliography Citation
Cseh, Attila. "Effects of Depressive Symptoms on Earnings." Southern Economic Journal 75,2 (October 2008): 383-409.
2. Cseh, Attila
Mental Health and the Labor Market
Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Kentucky, 2006
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses (PQDT)
Keyword(s): Depression (see also CESD); Health, Mental/Psychological; Heterogeneity; Insurance, Health; Modeling, Fixed Effects

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Conventional wisdom is that depression lowers productivity. The magnitude of this effect has been of interest to economists and other social scientists. In this dissertation I take advantage of the longitudinal nature of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 to investigate the effects from a dynamic perspective and to control for unobserved heterogeneity in a fixed effects framework. Exploiting that the dataset provides information about depressive symptoms in multiple years, I am able to study how changes in depressive symptoms impact productivity. My results suggest that personality matters to a great extent. While ordinary least squares results render a strong negative significant effect to depressive symptoms, taking unobserved personal characteristics into account shows that people who enter a depressive spell will not lose productivity and those who come out of a depressive spell will not be more productive either. Due to the limited cohort in the NLSY79, the results may not be generalizable to older populations or to individuals in their early 20s.

Health insurance mandates have become increasingly popular with policy makers as an alternative to public provision of health insurance benefits. In this paper I analyze the effects of state mental health parity mandates in the labor market and in the insurance market. Theory suggests that health insurance mandates could increase employers' costs and potentially reduce employer provided health insurance, and/or lower wages. States passed parity mandates throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, however, self-insured health insurance plans are not subject to these state regulations. Therefore, I estimate the effect of state mental health parity laws by assigning probability values of being subject to these state parity mandates - that is, probability values of being in a non-self-insured health plan - to each respondent in the Current Population Survey based on firm size, industry and year. These probability values are constructed using information on eligibility and, self-insured plans in the Employer Health Benefits Survey. Results provide no evidence that parity mandates increased the number of people uninsured. Findings on the impact on wages are not conclusive since coefficients seem to be sensitive to changes in the sample.

Bibliography Citation
Cseh, Attila. Mental Health and the Labor Market. Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Kentucky, 2006.