Relative affluence and mental health: Evidence from quasi-random class assignments
中文摘要
本文考察与来自更富裕地区的同伴接触是否会对个体的心理健康产生不利影响。利用140万名中国大学新生的行政心理筛查数据,并利用学生在专业内部被准随机分配至行政班级这一特征,我们识别了同班同学家乡富裕程度对心理健康的因果效应。我们发现,在控制学生本人家乡县富裕程度的条件下,接触来自更富裕县的同学会显著加重抑郁。该效应在来自较不富裕县的学生以及男性中尤为明显。结果对同伴富裕程度的替代度量(包括基于推算家庭收入的度量)和心理健康的替代度量以及替代设定均稳健。我们的发现为相对社会经济地位如何影响心理健康提供了新的证据。
Abstract
This paper examines whether exposure to peers from more affluent regions adversely affects individuals’ mental health. Using administrative psychological screening data for 1.4 million Chinese college freshmen and exploiting the quasi-random assignment of students within majors to administrative classes, we identify the causal effect of classmates’ hometown affluence on mental health. We find that, conditional on students’ own home county affluence, exposure to classmates from more affluent counties significantly increases depression. The effect is particularly pronounced among students from less affluent counties and among males. The results are robust to alternative measures of peer affluence (including one based on imputed household income) and mental health, as well as alternative specifications. Our findings provide new evidence on how relative socioeconomic status affects mental health.