参与劳动力市场的心理障碍：来自加纳农村的证据
Psychological barriers to participation in the labor market: Evidence from rural Ghana
Journal of Development Economics · 2026 · [{"name": "Leandro Carvalho", "affiliation": ["University of Southern California", "California Southern University"]}, {"name": "Damien de Walque", "affiliation": ["World Bank Group"]}, {"name": "Crick Lund", "affiliation": ["King's College London"]}, {"name": "Heather Schofield", "affiliation": ["Cornell University"]}, {"name": "Vincent Somville", "affiliation": ["Norwegian School of Economics"]}, {"name": "Jingyao Wei", "affiliation": ["Norwegian School of Economics"]}]
中文摘要
心理健康状况与劳动力市场参与度下降密切相关, 但此类状况影响劳动供给的潜在渠道仍不清楚。我们开展了一项两阶段研究, 通过考察 (i) 工作接受决策, (ii) 在接受工作后的劳动供给、产出与收入, 以及 (iii) 辞职率, 来分解这一关系。在第一阶段, 我们询问加纳农村妇女是否愿意在替代性工作稀缺的淡季接受一份以工代赈工作。我们发现, 抑郁和焦虑在该人群中十分常见, 而患有抑郁和焦虑的个体更有可能拒绝家外的工作机会, 但接受居家工作岗位的可能性则无差异。在第二阶段, 我们向那些愿意居家工作的人随机提供居家工作, 从而避免了选择效应。居家工作时, 抑郁和焦虑均不能预测工作完成、收入或辞职率。这些发现表明, 除了已有研究确认的心理健康对家外工作生产率的负面影响之外, 较差的心理健康还可能通过降低接受率, 损害传统家外工作的劳动力市场结果。但结果同时提示了一种改善心理健康较差者劳动力市场结果的替代路径: 居家工作机会——对于心理健康较差者, 这类机会并不与更低的接受率或更低的在岗生产率相关。
Abstract
Mental health conditions are strongly associated with reduced labor market participation, but the underlying channels through which such conditions impact labor supply remain unclear. We conduct a two-phase study decomposing this relationship by examining (i) job take-up decisions and (ii) labor supply, output, and earning conditional on job take-up, and (iii) quit rates. In Phase 1, women in rural Ghana are asked whether they would be willing to take-up a cash-for-work job during the lean season when alternative work is scarce. We find that individuals with depression and anxiety, which are common in this population, are much more likely to decline work offers outside the home but equally likely to accept work-from-home positions. In Phase 2, we randomly offer jobs at home to those who were willing to work from home, avoiding selection effects. Neither depression nor anxiety predict work completion, income, or quit rates when working from home. These findings suggest that poor mental health may harm labor market outcomes in traditional jobs outside of the home via reduced take-up, above and beyond the established negative impacts of mental health on productivity in work outside of the home. But, the results also suggest an alternative approach to improving labor market outcomes for those in poor mental health: work-from-home opportunities, which are not associated with lower take-up or lower productivity on the job for those in poor mental health.