revised version published online in: Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Economics and Finance, 27 February 2024
The COVID 19 pandemic has profoundly impacted the world, affecting not only physical health and the economy but also mental well being. This chapter provides an investigation of the causal link between lockdown measures a significant public health intervention and mental health. Our examination begins with an overview of the mental health landscape across various countries prior to the COVID 19 pandemic. We then summarize key insights from a range of surveys, reviews, and meta analyses concerning the pandemic's effect on mental health.
Further, we delve into a detailed analysis of three noteworthy studies that employ natural experiments to investigate the effects of lockdowns on mental health in different countries. Despite their differing research designs, these studies converge on the conclusion that lockdowns have had a detrimental impact on mental health. The intensity of this effect, however, varies among different population groups. This suggests that lockdown measures have affected certain segments of the population more profoundly than others.
We use cookies to provide you with an optimal website experience. This includes cookies that are necessary for the operation of the site as well as cookies that are only used for anonymous statistical purposes, for comfort settings or to display personalized content. You can decide for yourself which categories you want to allow. Please note that based on your settings, you may not be able to use all of the site's functions.
Cookie settings
These necessary cookies are required to activate the core functionality of the website. An opt-out from these technologies is not available.
In order to further improve our offer and our website, we collect anonymous data for statistics and analyses. With the help of these cookies we can, for example, determine the number of visitors and the effect of certain pages on our website and optimize our content.