The Economics of Gender and Mental Illness

The past quarter-century has seen research on the economic impacts of mental
illness flourish. Innovations in measurement and the release of several communitybased
and often nationally representative data sets containing valid and reliable
diagnostic information have enabled researchers to make substantial advances in
understanding the myriad ways that mental illness impacts the economic lives of
the ill and their families. Among the most interesting and persistent findings in
this literature is that mental illness affects women and men differently. Not only do
women and men have very different rates of prevalence for various diseases, but
mental illness is also commonly found to have different effects in their economic
lives.