Working Paper: CEPR ID: DP18369
Authors: lauren jones; mark stabile; kourtney koebel; jill furzer
Abstract: We investigate the impact of household earnings shocks on in-school mental health designations in the context of the Great Recession using a unique data set of linked administrative educational and tax data, and propensity score matching. Relative to children who did not experience recessionary earnings losses, the rate of new mental health designations among children with earnings losses was 0.5 percentage points higher (20 percent) during the recession. The effect of experiencing a recessionary earnings loss is persistent and grows, especially among children who experienced the loss when they were aged 10 or younger.
Keywords: schools
JEL Codes: I1; I2
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| earnings losses during the recession (J39) | rate of new mental health designations among children (I12) |
| earnings losses during the recession (J39) | rates of new designations for children aged 10 or younger (J13) |
| increase of $1,000 in household earnings (D19) | reduction in new mental health designations (I19) |