The Effect of Non-Standard Employment on Mental Health in Britain

68 Pages Posted: 27 Mar 2001

See all articles by Marco Francesconi

Marco Francesconi

University of Essex; Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR); Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)

Elena Bardasi

University of Essex - ESRC Research Centre for Micro-Social Change

Date Written: December 2000

Abstract

This paper explores the relationship between non-standard types of employment and mental health. The analysis uses data on workers from the first seven waves of the British Household Panel Study, 1991-97. Four different types of non-standard employment (non-standard contracts, places, times, and weekly hours of work) are analysed and the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) index is used as the measure of mental health. We find evidence of only a modest effect of all types of flexible employment on the GHQ scores of men and women. Although the workers' non-standard employment behaviour does not significantly vary with their endowments and unobserved inputs, population health heterogeneity may still have a critical effect on the observed changes in labour market behaviour. Finally, we find some significant effect of non-standard employment on mental health when the sample is stratified by age and education.

Keywords: Mental Health, Non-Standard Employment, Panel Data, Fixed-Effects Model, Endowment Heterogeneity

JEL Classification: I12, J21, J22

Suggested Citation

Francesconi, Marco and Bardasi, Elena, The Effect of Non-Standard Employment on Mental Health in Britain (December 2000). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=264795 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.264795

Marco Francesconi (Contact Author)

University of Essex ( email )

Wivenhoe Park
Colchester CO4 3SQ
United Kingdom
+44 1206 873 534 (Phone)
+44 1206 873 151 (Fax)

Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)

London
United Kingdom

Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)

P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, D-53072
Germany

Elena Bardasi

University of Essex - ESRC Research Centre for Micro-Social Change

Wivenhoe Park
Colchester CO4 3SQ
United Kingdom

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