Highlighting the career effects of mental health conditions

Description of impact

In 2021, Michael S. Dahl and researchers from Yale University and New York University published a working paper through the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) in the U.S. examining the labour market consequences of mental health conditions, focusing on depression, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder. Using Danish register data, the researchers showed that these conditions lead to substantial earnings penalties, but that lithium treatment for bipolar disorder reduces both earnings penalties and the risk of low or no income. In 2024, the research was further developed in an article published in the Journal of Political Economy Microeconomics.

In 2022, the working paper was used in an issue brief by the U.S. Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) on the economic consequences of mental health conditions. The same year, the study was cited in a report by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in a chapter on mental distress as an obstacle to human development. From 2022 to 2026, the research was also cited in working papers, policy papers, discussion papers, and reports published by the U.S.-based NBER, Germany's IZA Institute of Labor Economics, the ifo Institute at the University of Munich, the UK's Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), and Denmark's Rockwool Foundation.

By contributing to the evidence base for analysis and policy development in Denmark, the U.S, Germany, the UK, and the UN, the research has achieved public policy impact. The study has helped demonstrate that mental health conditions are not only a public health challenge but also have consequences for employment and income. In this way, the research has strengthened the evidence base used by public authorities, international organisations, and independent research institutes in their work on mental health and labour market policy, which may ultimately contribute to social and quality-of-life-impact for people with mental health conditions.

Category of impact	Public policy impact, Social impact, Quality of life impact