Corresponding author: John Gathergood, School of Economics, Sir Clive Granger Building, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK. Email: john.gathergood@nottingham.ac.uk
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Debt and Depression: Causal Links and Social Norm Effects†
Article first published online: 9 MAR 2012
DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-0297.2012.02519.x
© 2012 The Author(s). The Economic Journal © 2012 Royal Economic Society
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How to Cite
Gathergood, J. (2012), Debt and Depression: Causal Links and Social Norm Effects. The Economic Journal, 122: 1094–1114. doi: 10.1111/j.1468-0297.2012.02519.x
- †
I thank the Economic and Social Research Council for providing funding for my post-doctoral research fellowship, under grant number PTA-026-27-1664. The data and tabulations used in this publication were made available through the ESRC Data Archive. The data were originally collected by the ESRC Research Centre on Micro-social Change at the University of Essex (now incorporated within the Institute for Social and Economic Research). Neither the original collectors of the data nor the Archive bear any responsibility for the analyses or interpretations presented here.
Publication History
- Issue published online: 3 SEP 2012
- Article first published online: 9 MAR 2012
- Accepted manuscript online: 12 JAN 2012 03:14PM EST
- Submitted: 21 January 2011 Accepted: 28 November 2011
- Abstract
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- Cited By
Individuals exhibiting problems repaying their debt obligations also exhibit much worse psychological health. Selection into problem debt on the basis of poor psychological health accounts for much of this difference. The causality between problem debt and psychological health may be two way. Using individual level UK panel data, local house price movements exogenous to individual households are used to establish the causality from problem mortgage debt to psychological health. In addition, the social norm effects of problem debt are investigated using local bankruptcy and repossession rates. Results indicate there are sizeable causal links and social norm effects in the debt–psychological health relationship.