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More income, less depression? Revisiting the nonlinear and heterogeneous relationship between income and mental health

This paper uses a large-scale nationally representative dataset to examine the nonlinear effect of income on mental health. To investigate their causal relationship, the exogenous impact of automation on income is utilized as the instrument variable (IV). In addition, to explore their nonlinear rela...

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Autores principales: Li, Chao, Ning, Guangjie, Wang, Lin, Chen, Feier
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9795204/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36591032
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1016286
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author Li, Chao
Ning, Guangjie
Wang, Lin
Chen, Feier
author_facet Li, Chao
Ning, Guangjie
Wang, Lin
Chen, Feier
author_sort Li, Chao
collection PubMed
description This paper uses a large-scale nationally representative dataset to examine the nonlinear effect of income on mental health. To investigate their causal relationship, the exogenous impact of automation on income is utilized as the instrument variable (IV). In addition, to explore their nonlinear relationship, both income and its quadratic term are included in regressions. It is found that the impact of income on mental health is U-shaped rather than linear. The turning point (7.698) of this nonlinear relation is near the midpoint of the income interval ([0, 16.113]). This suggests that depression declines as income increases at the lower-income level. However, beyond middle income, further increases in income take pronounced mental health costs, leading to a positive relationship between the two factors. We further exclude the possibility of more complex nonlinear relationships by testing higher order terms of income. In addition, robustness checks, using other instrument variables and mental health indicators, different IV models and placebo analysis, all support above conclusions. Heterogeneity analysis demonstrates that males, older workers, ethnic minorities and those with lower health and socioeconomic status experience higher levels of depression. Highly educated and urban residents suffer from greater mental disorders after the turning point. Religious believers and Communist Party of China members are mentally healthier at lower income levels, meaning that religious and political beliefs moderate the relationship between income and mental health.
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spelling pubmed-97952042022-12-29 More income, less depression? Revisiting the nonlinear and heterogeneous relationship between income and mental health Li, Chao Ning, Guangjie Wang, Lin Chen, Feier Front Psychol Psychology This paper uses a large-scale nationally representative dataset to examine the nonlinear effect of income on mental health. To investigate their causal relationship, the exogenous impact of automation on income is utilized as the instrument variable (IV). In addition, to explore their nonlinear relationship, both income and its quadratic term are included in regressions. It is found that the impact of income on mental health is U-shaped rather than linear. The turning point (7.698) of this nonlinear relation is near the midpoint of the income interval ([0, 16.113]). This suggests that depression declines as income increases at the lower-income level. However, beyond middle income, further increases in income take pronounced mental health costs, leading to a positive relationship between the two factors. We further exclude the possibility of more complex nonlinear relationships by testing higher order terms of income. In addition, robustness checks, using other instrument variables and mental health indicators, different IV models and placebo analysis, all support above conclusions. Heterogeneity analysis demonstrates that males, older workers, ethnic minorities and those with lower health and socioeconomic status experience higher levels of depression. Highly educated and urban residents suffer from greater mental disorders after the turning point. Religious believers and Communist Party of China members are mentally healthier at lower income levels, meaning that religious and political beliefs moderate the relationship between income and mental health. Frontiers Media S.A. 2022-12-14 /pmc/articles/PMC9795204/ /pubmed/36591032 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1016286 Text en Copyright © 2022 Li, Ning, Wang and Chen. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Psychology
Li, Chao
Ning, Guangjie
Wang, Lin
Chen, Feier
More income, less depression? Revisiting the nonlinear and heterogeneous relationship between income and mental health
title More income, less depression? Revisiting the nonlinear and heterogeneous relationship between income and mental health
title_full More income, less depression? Revisiting the nonlinear and heterogeneous relationship between income and mental health
title_fullStr More income, less depression? Revisiting the nonlinear and heterogeneous relationship between income and mental health
title_full_unstemmed More income, less depression? Revisiting the nonlinear and heterogeneous relationship between income and mental health
title_short More income, less depression? Revisiting the nonlinear and heterogeneous relationship between income and mental health
title_sort more income, less depression? revisiting the nonlinear and heterogeneous relationship between income and mental health
topic Psychology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9795204/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36591032
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1016286
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