Economics of Mental Health
This session includes three studies on the economics of mental health. The studies contribute timely information on the determinants and consequences of mental health, and barriers to accessing treatment services. Mental health problems are a leading cause of disability among adults and youth. Understanding determinants of mental health problems is important for prioritizing public medical care expenditures: unlike other areas of medical care the majority of mental health treatment services in the U.S. are covered by public payers. Treatment costs along are $239 billion annually, and the full costs to society are likely substantially higher. Paper 1 examines how entering the labor market, a critical period for career establishment, in an economic downturn impacts feelings of self-worth across the life course using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979. Paper 2 utilizes treatment data from the Medical Expenditure Panel Surveys to separately assess factors that predict initiation of new versus ongoing mental health treatment and examine predictors of treatment intensity once contact has been made with the treatment system. Paper 3 investigates the impact of depression on homelessness utilizing variation in generated by postpartum depression among mothers and multiple econometric methods in the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study. In addition to the three formal presentations delivered by the authors, a discussant is assigned to each paper and will describe study contributions, limitations, and extensions. Time will be allocated for audience questions. These studies offer rigorous, novel findings of interest to a broad audience, and are consistent with ASHEcon themes.