Working Paper: NBER ID: w29121
Authors: Natalie Bau; Gaurav Khanna; Corinne Low; Manisha Shah; Sreyashi Sharmin; Alessandra Voena
Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic brought the dual crises of disease and the containment policies designed to mitigate it. Yet, there is little evidence on the impacts of these policies on women in lower-income countries, where there may be limited social safety nets to absorb these shocks. We conduct a large phone survey and leverage India's geographically varied containment policies to estimate the association between the pandemic and containment policies and measures of women's well-being, including mental health and food security. On aggregate, the pandemic resulted in dramatic income losses, increases in food insecurity, and declines in female mental health. While potentially crucial to stem the spread of COVID-19, the greater prevalence of containment policies is associated with increased food insecurity, particularly for women, and reduced female mental health. For surveyed women, moving from zero to average containment levels is associated with a 38% increase in the likelihood of reporting more depression, a 73% increase in reporting more exhaustion, and a 44% increase in reporting more anxiety. Women whose social position may make them more vulnerable—those with daughters and those living in female-headed households—experience even larger declines in mental health.
Keywords: COVID-19; women's wellbeing; mental health; food security; containment policies
JEL Codes: I14; I15; J16; O12; O38
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| COVID-19 pandemic (H12) | income losses (J17) |
| COVID-19 pandemic (H12) | food insecurity (I32) |
| COVID-19 pandemic (H12) | declines in mental health (I12) |
| Containment policies (E65) | increased food insecurity (I32) |
| Containment policies (E65) | decreased mental health (I12) |
| Containment policies (E65) | increased likelihood of reporting more depression (C83) |
| Containment policies (E65) | increased likelihood of reporting more exhaustion (J22) |
| Containment policies (E65) | increased likelihood of reporting more anxiety (E71) |
| Containment policies (E65) | negative mental health outcomes in vulnerable groups (I14) |