幸存者的心理健康与收入稳定性的保护作用
Survivors' Mental Health and the Protective Role of Income Stability
AER: Insights · 2025 · [{"name": "Itzik Fadlon", "affiliation": []}, {"name": "Astrid Sophie Fugleholm", "affiliation": []}, {"name": "Torben Heien Nielsen", "affiliation": []}]
中文摘要
我们利用覆盖全部丹麦家庭的行政记录，刻画配偶去世后丧偶者的心理健康状况。我们提供了直观清晰的证据，表明其存在即时、巨大且持续的不利影响，并重点研究收入保障在驱动这些即时效应中的作用。我们发现，无论男性还是女性，配偶去世后心理健康药物使用激增的很大一部分，都可由这一冲击造成的收入损失来解释。我们的结果表明，安全网政策可以通过其提供的即时流动性来改善丧偶者的心理健康。（JEL D12, D91, G51, H55, I12, I38, J16）
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. (JEL D12, D91, G51, H55, I12, I38, J16)