The Impact of Psychiatric Disorders on Labor Market Outcomes

Abstract

Analyzing data on 2,225 men and 2,401 women from the National Comorbidity Survey, the authors examine the impact of psychiatric disorders on employment and, among those employed, work hours and income. They find that psychiatric disorders significantly reduced employment among both men and women. They also find evidence of small reductions in the conditional work hours of men and a substantial drop in the conditional income of men and women, although these findings are somewhat sensitive to the estimation methods and specification of the model.