The Effect of Non-Standard Employment on Mental Health in Britain
68 Pages Posted: 27 Mar 2001
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: Suggested Citation