| Abstract: |
This paper investigates the causal impact of working conditions on mental
health in the UK, combining new comprehensive longitudinal data on working
conditions from the European Working Condition Survey with microdata from the
UK Household Longitudinal Survey (Understanding Society). Our empirical
strategy accounts for the endogenous sorting of individuals into occupations
by including individual fixed effects. It addresses the potential endogeneity
of occupational change over time by focusing only on individuals who remain in
the same occupation (same ISCO), exploiting the variation in working
conditions within each occupation over time. This variation, determined
primarily by general macroeconomic conditions, is likely to be exogenous from
the individual point of view. Our results indicate that improvements in
working conditions have a beneficial, statistically significant, and
clinically meaningful impact on depressive symptoms for women. A one standard
deviation increase in the skills and discretion index reduces depression score
by 2.84 points, which corresponds to approximately 20% of the GHQ score
standard deviation, while a one standard deviation increase in working time
quality reduces depression score by 0.97 points. The results differ by age:
improvements in skills and discretion benefit younger workers (through
increases in decision latitude and training) and older workers (through higher
cognitive roles), as do improvements in working time quality; changes in work
intensity and physical environment affect only younger and older workers,
respectively. Each aspect of job quality impacts different dimensions of
mental health. Specifically, skills and discretion primarily affect the loss
of confidence and anxiety; working time quality impacts anxiety and social
dysfunction; work intensity affects the feeling of social dysfunction among
young female workers. Finally, we show that improvements in levels of job
control (higher skills and discretion) and job demand (lower intensity) lead
to greater health benefits, especially for occupations that are inherently
characterised by higher job strain. |