| By: |
Maria Gueltzow (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany);
Maarten J. Bijlsma (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany);
Frank J. van Lenthe;
Mikko Myrskylä (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany) |
| Abstract: |
Background: We aim to investigate to what extent gender inequality at the
labor market explains higher depression risk for older US women compared to
men. Methods: We analyze data from 35, 699 US adults aged 50-80 years that
participated in the Health and Retirement Study. We calculate the gender gap
as the difference in the prevalence of elevated depressive symptoms (>= 3,
8-item Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale) between women and
men. We employ a dynamic causal decomposition and simulate the life course of
a synthetic cohort from ages 50-80 with the longitudinal g-formula. We
introduce four nested interventions by assigning women the same probabilities
of A) being in an employment category, B) occupation class, C) current income,
and D) prior income group as men, conditional on women’s health and family
status until age 70. Findings: The gender gap in depression risk is
2.9%-points at ages 50-51 which increases to 7.6%-points at ages 70-71.
Intervention A decreases the gender gap over ages 50-71 by 1.2%-points (95%CI
for change: -2.81 to 0.4), intervention D by 1.64%-points (95%CI for change:
-3.28 to -0.15) or 32% (95%CI: 1.39 to 62.83), and the effects of
interventions B and C are in between those of A and D. The impact is
particularly large for Hispanics and low educated groups. Interpretation:
Gender inequalities at the labor market substantially explain the gender gap
in depression risk in older US adults. Reducing these inequalities has the
potential to narrow the gender gap in depression. |
| Keywords: |
USA, gender, inequality, labor market, mental health |
| JEL: |
J1 Z0 |
| Date: |
2023 |
| URL: |
https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dem:wpaper:wp-2023-003 |