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(Not) Talking through our mental problems
Mental health disorders impose a substantial economic burden on the world economy. Talk therapy is often the first line of treatment for these disorders. Using administrative data and exploiting a policy reform in the Netherlands that introduced an easily accessible form of talk therapy at general practitioner offices, I examine the causal impact of talk therapy on healthcare utilization and labour market outcomes. Although the introduction significantly increased treatment uptake, it also increased existing disparities in healthcare utilization and did not lead to significant improvements in patient labour market outcomes.
Spinoff waiting times for mental health treatment: Deaths of despairs and children
In this project, I examine further impacts of waiting times for mental health treatment. The first part of the project focuses on the role of waiting times on death of despairs related outcomes such as addiction and suicide. The second part of the project examines the impacts of waiting times on children's outcomes.
The long-term consequences of mental health screening in high school
While the prevalence of mental health issues is high during childhood, only half of all children suffering from these issues receive treatment. The uptake of treatment is lower among children with low SES and/or migration backgrounds. This could potentially further increase inequality in later-in-life outcomes. This project analyses the introduction of preventative mental health screening for all 15/16-year-old high school students in the Netherlands. As a first step, (the heterogeneity in) the impact on the actual uptake of treatment is estimated. The second step examines whether preventive mental health screening also has long-term (10 years) effects on educational and labour market outcomes.
Sick or Unemployed? Examining Transitions into Sickness Insurance at Unemployment Benefit Exhaustion
Joint with Pierre Koning
Submitted
Spikes in exits at unemployment insurance (UI) benefit exhaustion into other benefit schemes such as sickness insurance (SI) are well-documented. These spikes could be driven by relatively healthy workers maximizing their total duration of benefit receipt, or workers in ill health who remain on UI while incapable of working. While the first explanation calls for a stricter SI and UI system, the second highlights the need for increased information provision. We study the importance of these explanations by first documenting a spike in exits into SI at UI benefit exhaustion in the Netherlands. Comparing detailed health and labor market characteristics of exit cohorts, we show that the spike is unlikely to be driven by maximizing behavior of relatively healthy workers. Instead, our results point to catch-up of initial non-take-up of SI by workers with substantial mental and physical health conditions. This opposes earlier work on substitution between UI and SI/DI.
No longer working-on papers
Activating rejected DI applicants: The impact of additional reintegration services
Policy report for Dutch parliament: https://www.tweedekamer.nl/downloads/document?id=2025D03096
Joint with Pierre Koning
Individuals whose application for disability insurance (DI) benefits is rejected often end up on unemployment insurance (UI) benefits . Standard reintegration services offered to UI recipients are however often not effective for these rejected DI applicants. In this project, we evaluate a policy reform which increased the provision of reintegration services to rejected DI applicants in the Netherlands. While take-up of the reintegration services is substantial, we find no evidence of improvements in employment outcomes of rejected DI applicants.
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