Journal of Psychology & Psychotherapy
Open Access

The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the mental health of urban residents - evidence from China

10^th Annual Congress on Mental Health

March 09, 2023 | Webinar

Yue Han

University of Economics and Business, China

Scientific Tracks Abstracts: J Psychol Psychother

Abstract :

Based on a nationwide micro-survey in China from 2018 to 2021, this paper empirically estimates the causal impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health of Chinese residents, by exploiting the distribution of the outflow population from Wuhan as an instrumental variable (IV). Our findings suggest that for every 10% increase in the cumulative confirmed cases, the number of mentally unhealthy days reported by urban residents in the past 30 days will increase by 2.19, an increase of 46.90% compared with the mean value. The impact is more significant among females, people aged 30 or above, and private-sector employees. Further evidence highlights the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on residents’ expectations of future income and confidence in macroeconomic development, both of which we interpret as mechanisms related to economic concerns. In addition, application of the multi-period difference-in-differences (DID) strategy revealed that the negative impact still exists two years post-pandemic, but it has been dramatically alleviated since the initial stage.

Biography :

Yue Han is a Ph.D. candidate at School of economics, Capital University of economics and business, China. Her research interests include health economics and the economics of growth. She has won the first class scholarship many times.