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Lookup NU author(s): Dr Lena Janys
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
In this paper, we provide causal evidence on abortions and risky health behaviors as determinants of mental health development among young women. Using administrative in- and outpatient records from Sweden, we apply a novel grouped fixed-effects estimator proposed by Bonhomme and Manresa (2015) to allow for time-varying unobserved heterogeneity. We show that the positive association obtained from standard estimators shrinks to zero once we control for {grouped unobserved heterogeneity that varies across ages}. We estimate the group profiles of unobserved heterogeneity, which reflect differences in unobserved risk to be diagnosed with a mental health condition. In addition, we analyze mental health development and risky health behaviors other than unintended pregnancies across groups. Our results suggest that these are determined by the same type of unobserved heterogeneity, which we attribute to the same unobserved process of decision-making. We develop and estimate a theoretical model of risky choices and mental health that is consistent with our empirical results. In the model, mental health disparity across groups is generated by different degrees of self-control problems. Our findings imply that mental health concerns cannot be used to justify restrictive abortion policies.
Author(s): Janys L, Siflinger B
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Journal of Econometrics
Year: 2024
Volume: 238
Issue: 1
Print publication date: 01/01/2024
Online publication date: 15/11/2023
Acceptance date: 15/08/2023
Date deposited: 24/08/2023
ISSN (print): 0304-4076
ISSN (electronic): 1872-6895
Publisher: Elsevier BV
URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeconom.2023.105580
DOI: 10.1016/j.jeconom.2023.105580
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