American Economic Review: Insights
ISSN 2640-205X (Print) | ISSN 2640-2068 (Online)
Survivors' Mental Health and the Protective Role of Income Stability
American Economic Review: Insights
(pp. 265–84)
Abstract
We use administrative records on the universe of Danish households to characterize survivors' mental health following their spouse's death. We provide visually clear evidence for the immediate, large, and lingering adverse impacts and focus on studying the role of income security in driving the immediate effects. We find that, for both males and females, a large share of the spike in the take-up of mental health medication upon spousal death can be explained by the income loss imposed by the shock. Our results imply that safety net policies can improve survivors' mental health via the immediate liquidity they provide.Citation
Fadlon, Itzik, Astrid Sophie Fugleholm, and Torben Heien Nielsen. 2026. "Survivors' Mental Health and the Protective Role of Income Stability." American Economic Review: Insights 8 (2): 265–84. DOI: 10.1257/aeri.20250006Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- D12 Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis
- D91 Micro-Based Behavioral Economics: Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making
- G51 Household Finance: Household Saving, Borrowing, Debt, and Wealth
- H55 Social Security and Public Pensions
- I12 Health Behavior
- I38 Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty: Government Programs; Provision and Effects of Welfare Programs
- J16 Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination