The Relationship Between Income and Depression Severity in 12 Developing Countries Público

Abstract

Abstract
The Relationship Between Income and Depression Severity in 12 Developing Countries
By Frances Nicholas
Mental health is an issue that has been gaining increasing attention on global agendas in the last
decade or so. However, studies from developing countries on the depression-income relationship
are limited, primarily due to lack of data. This paper uses nationally representative, individual-
level data from the World Health Organization (WHO) World Health Surveys (WHS) on the
adult population of 12 develoing countries to explore this relationship at a variety of income and
depression levels. To control for potential reverse causality, two stage least squares (TSLS) and
instrumental variable (IV) methods are used. My analysis reveals that income and depression
have a significant inverse relationship in the low-income developing countries and below the
median income level in the middle-income developing countries. For the lowest income bracket,
the depression-income relationship is large and gets increasingly smaller until a threshold income
level. Above this point, income is an insignificant determinant of depression. Because my results
find those under the median income to be the most severely affected by the income-depression
relationship, I argue that policies aimed at raising the incomes of the extreme poor would have
the largest impact on reducing depression severity. This analysis reveals that there does appear to
be a relationship between income and depression in the developing world, and that this
relationship seems to vary based on income and development level.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents
Introduction 1

Literature Review 4

Data 7

Methods
I. Measurement of Depression 18
II. Ordinary Least Squares 19
III. Instrumental Variables 20

Results
I. Low-income Developing Countries 24
II. Middle-income Developing Countries 29
II. High-income Developing Countries 32

Conclusion 37

References 43

Appendix 46

About this Honors Thesis

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School	Emory College
Department	Economics
Degree	BA
Submission	Honors Thesis
Language	English
Research Field	Economics, General
Palabra Clave	income, depression
Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor	Streeb, Gordon L, Emory University
Committee Members	Worthman, Carol, Emory University Molodtsova, Tetyana, Emory University

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