Locked down in distress: a causal estimation of the mental-health fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK
Available here
Abstract
An extensive literature documents the economic impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic, while a nascent one is beginning to detail the mental health impact. A limitation with existing work is that reported findings generally cannot be taken as causal estimates. In this study, we use a large-scale longitudinal survey coupled with a differences-in-differences research design to estimate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health. We report substantive increases in psychological distress for the population overall during the first wave. These impacts were, however, not uniformly distributed with the costs in terms of mental health being much more pronounced for females, younger cohorts, the BAME community, and migrants. A further unique feature of our study is that we looked to understand why people underwent such a significant decline in mental health. Our analysis would suggest that financial worries, health anxiety, social isolation, and crowding stress all played an important role.
Reference
Anaya, L., Howley, P., Waqas, M. and Yalonetzky, G. (2023) Locked down in distress: a causal estimation of the mental-health fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK. Economic Inquiry, https://doi.org/10.1111/ecin.13181.
Is the mental fallout from a pandemic moderated by neighbourhood characteristics? Evidence from the first wave of covid-19 in Great Britain
Abstract
As is well documented, the first wave of the covid-19 pandemic, with its concomitant lockdown measures, is associated with marked deterioration of mental health in many countries. Using a quasi-experimental design and drawing on several small-area indicators, we probe the potential moderating role of neighbourhood and outdoor dwelling characteristics when it comes to the impact of the pandemic’s first wave for mental health in Great Britain. We find practically (and mostly statistically) insignificant differences in mental health impact according to neighbourhood characteristics. The one exception being access to ‘blue space’ whereby being closer to blue spaces (i.e. lakes, rivers, or beaches) appears to mitigate some of the mental health costs due to the pandemic. In contrast, we find a variety of outdoor dwelling characteristics such as garden space, presence of a rooftop, terrace or balcony as well as other house outdoor space significantly predict the mental distress experienced during the first wave of the pandemic. Overall, our results suggest that house outdoor spaces seem to play a more prominent role in moderating the mental health consequences during the first pandemic wave.
Reference
Anaya, L., Howley, P., Waqas, M. and Yalonetzky, G. (2022) Is the mental fallout from a pandemic moderated by neighbourhood characteristics? Evidence from the first wave of covid-19 in Great Britain. Working Paper. Available here