Working Paper: CEPR ID: DP7384
Authors: Jan C. van Ours; Jenny Williams
Abstract: This paper investigates whether cannabis use leads to worse mental health. To do so, we account for common unobserved factors affecting mental health and cannabis consumption by modeling mental health jointly with the dynamics of cannabis use. Our main finding is that using cannabis increases the likelihood of mental health problems, with current use having a larger effect than past use. The estimates suggest a dose response relationship between the frequency of recent cannabis use and the probability of currently experiencing a mental health problem.
Keywords: cannabis use; discrete factor models; duration models; mental health
JEL Codes: C41; D12; I19
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| cannabis use (I12) | mental health problems (I12) |
| current cannabis use (I12) | mental health problems (I12) |
| increased frequency of cannabis use (I12) | higher probabilities of mental health issues (I12) |
| past cannabis use (I12) | mental health problems (I12) |
| never used cannabis (Y50) | mental health problems (I12) |