2021/03/22 by Lena Janys, Janys, Lena, Bettina Siflinger +1 · 1 citation
Social Sciences · #Demographic Trends and Gender Preferences #FOS: Economics and business #Gender, Labor, and Family Dynamics #General Economics (econ.GN) #Health disparities and outcomes
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2103.12159
openalex publication_date 2021/03/22 · openalex created_date 2022/07/25 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
In this paper, we provide causal evidence on abortions and risky health\nbehaviors as determinants of mental health development among young women. Using\nadministrative in- and outpatient records from Sweden, we apply a novel grouped\nfixed-effects estimator proposed by Bonhomme and Manresa (2015) to allow for\ntime-varying unobserved heterogeneity. We show that the positive association\nobtained from standard estimators shrinks to zero once we control for grouped\ntime-varying unobserved heterogeneity. We estimate the group-specific profiles\nof unobserved heterogeneity, which reflect differences in unobserved risk to be\ndiagnosed with a mental health condition. We then analyze mental health\ndevelopment and risky health behaviors other than unwanted pregnancies across\ngroups. Our results suggest that these are determined by the same type of\nunobserved heterogeneity, which we attribute to the same unobserved process of\ndecision-making. We develop and estimate a theoretical model of risky choices\nand mental health, in which mental health disparity across groups is generated\nby different degrees of self-control problems. Our findings imply that mental\nhealth concerns cannot be used to justify restrictive abortion policies.\nMoreover, potential self-control problems should be targeted as early as\npossible to combat future mental health consequences.\n