Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-mlc7c Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T20:48:35.380Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The impact of wealth and income on the depression of older adults across European welfare regimes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 June 2019

Dimitrios Kourouklis Open the ORCID record for Dimitrios Kourouklis [Opens in a new window] ,
Georgia Verropoulou Open the ORCID record for Georgia Verropoulou [Opens in a new window]  and
Cleon Tsimbos Open the ORCID record for Cleon Tsimbos [Opens in a new window]
Dimitrios Kourouklis
Affiliation:
Center for Industrial Economics (CERNA), MINES ParisTech, Paris, France
Georgia Verropoulou*
Affiliation:
Department of Statistics & Insurance Science, University of Piraeus, Piraeus, Greece Centre for Longitudinal Studies, UCL Institute of Education, London, UK
Cleon Tsimbos
Affiliation:
Department of Statistics & Insurance Science, University of Piraeus, Piraeus, Greece
*
*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper examines the impact of wealth and income on the likelihood of depression among persons aged 50 or higher in four European regions characterised by differences in the standards of living and welfare systems. To address possible effects, data from Wave 6 of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) have been used. Based on a sample of 60,864 persons resident in 16 European countries and a binary indicator of depression, probit and instrumental variable probit models were employed, the latter of which deal with issues of endogeneity and omitted variable bias. The findings show differences in the prevalence of depression across Europe, favouring the more affluent North/Western countries. Further, there is a difference in the role and the magnitude of the effect of income and wealth across different regions. First, though both measures exhibit a measurable effect, their impact is greater in the poorer Central/Eastern and Southern regions; this divide is more pronounced for wealth. Second, income seems to have a stronger effect compared to wealth in all instances: hence, it would seem that liquidity is more important among Europeans aged 50 or higher than assets. Nevertheless, neither income nor wealth are important among persons aged 65 or higher in Nordic countries which may be partly attributable to a more equitable welfare system.

Keywords

Europedepressionincomewealthwelfare systemsSurvey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE)
Type
Article
Information
Ageing & Society , Volume 40 , Issue 11 , November 2020 , pp. 2448 - 2479
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Apouey, B and Clark, AE (2015) Winning big but feeling no better? The effect of lottery prizes on physical and mental health. Health Economics 24, 516–538.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Arsenijevic, J, Pavlova, M and Groot, W (2013) Measuring the catastrophic and impoverishing effect of household health care spending in Serbia. Social Science & Medicine 78, 17–25.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Atalay, K, Edwards, R and Liu, BY (2017) Effects of house prices on health: new evidence from Australia. Social Science & Medicine 192, 36–48.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Beekman, AT, Copeland, JR and Prince, MJ (1999) Review of community prevalence of depression in later life. British Journal of Psychiatry 174, 307–311.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Belloni, M, Meschi, E and Pasini, G (2016) The effect on mental health of retiring during the economic crisis. Health Economics 25, 126–140.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Berger, N, Van Oyen, H, Cambois, E, Fouweather, T, Jagger, C, Nusselder, W and Robine, JM (2015) Assessing the validity of the Global Activity Limitation Indicator in fourteen European countries. BMC Medical Research Methodology 15. doi:10.1186/1471-2288-15-1CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bergmann, M, Kneip, T, De Luca, G and Scherpenzeel, A (2017) Survey participation in the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), Wave 1–6. Based on Release 6.0.0 (March 2017). Munich Center for the Economics of Aging (MEA), SHARE Working Paper Series 31–2017.Google Scholar
Bernheim, BD and Garrett, DM (2003) The effects of financial education in the workplace: evidence from a survey of households. Journal of Public Economics 87, 1487–1519.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boden, JM and Fergusson, DM (2011) Alcohol and depression. Addiction 106, 906–914.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Börsch-Supan, A (2017) Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) Wave 6. Release version 6.0.0. SHARE-ERIC (Data-set). doi:10.6103/SHARE.w6.600.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Börsch-Supan, A, Brandt, M, Hunkler, C, Kneip, T, Korbmacher, J, Malter, F, Schaan, B, Stuck, S and Zuber, S (2013) Data resource profile: the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE). International Journal of Epidemiology 42, 992–1001.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Buber, I and Engelhardt, H (2011) The association between age and depressive symptoms among older men and women in Europe. Findings from SHARE. Comparative Population Studies 36, 1.Google Scholar
Butterworth, P, Rodgers, B and Windsor, TD (2009) Financial hardship, socio-economic position and depression: results from the PATH Through Life Survey. Social Science & Medicine 69, 229–237.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Castro-Costa, E, Dewey, M, Stewart, R, Banerjee, S, Hupper, F, Mendonca-Lima, C, Bula, C, Reisches, F, Wancata, J, Ritchie, K and Tsolaki, M (2007) Prevalence of depressive symptoms and syndromes in later life in ten European countries: the SHARE study. British Journal of Psychiatry 191, 393–401.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Castro-Costa, E, Dewey, M, Stewart, R, Banerjee, S, Huppert, F, Mendonca-Lima, C, Bula, C, Reisches, F, Wancata, J, Ritchie, K and Tsolaki, M (2008) Ascertaining late-life depressive symptoms in Europe: an evaluation of the survey version of the EURO-D scale in 10 nations. The SHARE project. International Journal of Methods in Psychiatric Research 17, 12–29.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Christelis, D, Jappeli, T and Padula, M (2005) Wealth and portfolio composition. In Börsch-Supan, A, Brugiavini, A, Jürges, H, Mackenbach, J, Siegrist, J and Weber, G (eds), Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe – First Results from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe. Mannheim, Germany: Mannheim Research Institute for the Economics of Aging (MEA), pp. 310–317.Google Scholar
Clouston, SAP and Denier, N (2017) Mental retirement and health selection: analyses from the U.S. Health and Retirement Study. Social Science and Medicine 178, 78–86.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Coe, NB and Zamarro, G (2011) Retirement effects on health in Europe. Journal of Health Economics 30, 77–86.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Colman, I and Ataullahjan, A (2010) Life course perspectives on the epidemiology of depression. Canadian Journal of Psychiatry 55, 622–632.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Courtin, E and Avendano, M (2016) Under one roof: the effect of co-residing with adult children on depression in later life. Social Science & Medicine 168, 140–149.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Courtin, E, Knapp, M, Grundy, E and Avendano-Pabon, M (2015) Are different measures of depressive symptoms in old age comparable? An analysis of the CES-D and Euro-D scales in 13 countries. International Journal of Methods in Psychiatric Research 24, 287–304.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
D'Alisa, S, Miscio, G, Baudo, S, Simone, A, Tesio, L and Mauro, A (2006) Depression is the main determinant of quality of life in multiple sclerosis: a classification-regression (CART) study. Disability and Rehabilitation 28, 307–314.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
De Luca, G and Peracchi, F (2005) Survey participation in the first wave of SHARE. In Börsch-Supan, A and Jürges, H (eds), The Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe – Methodology. Mannheim, Germany: Mannheim Research Institute for the Economics of Aging (MEA), pp. 88–101.Google Scholar
Dewa, CS and Lin, E (2000) Chronic physical illness, psychiatric disorder and disability in the workplace. Social Science & Medicine 51, 41–50.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dewey, ME and Prince, MJ (2005) Mental health. In Borsch-Supan, A, Brugiavini, A, Jürges, H, Mackenbach, J, Siegrist, J and Weber, G (eds), Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe – First Results from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe. Mannheim, Germany: Mannheim Research Institute for the Economics of Aging (MEA), pp. 118–125.Google Scholar
Eikemo, TA, Bambra, C, Joyce, K and Dahl, E (2008) Welfare state regimes and income-related health inequalities: a comparison of 23 European countries. European Journal of Public Health 18, 593–599.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Erixson, O (2017) Health responses to a wealth shock: evidence from a Swedish tax reform. Journal of Population Economics 30, 1281–1336.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ettner, SL (1996) New evidence on the relationship between income and health. Journal of Health Economics 15, 67–85.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Eurostat (2014) Living Conditions in Europe. Population and Social Conditions Collection (Statistical books). Brussels: Publication Office of the European Union. Available at http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/documents/3217494/6303711/KS-DZ-14-001-EN-N.pdf/d867b24b-da98-427d-bca2-d8bc212ff7a8.Google Scholar
Eurostat (2018) Eurostat Data on GDP per Capita, 2015. Available at http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/tgm/table.do?tab=table&init=1&plugin=1&language=en&pcode=tec00001.Google Scholar
Fenger, HM (2007) Welfare regimes in Central and Eastern Europe: incorporating post-communist countries in a welfare regime typology. Contemporary Issues and Ideas in Social Sciences 3.Google Scholar
Ferrari, AJ, Charlson, FJ, Norman, RE, Patten, SB, Freedman, G, Murray, CJ, Vos, T and Whiteford, HA (2013) Burden of depressive disorders by country, sex, age, and year: findings from the global burden of disease study 2010. PLOS Medicine 10. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1001547.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ferraro, KF and Shippee, TP (2009) Aging and cumulative inequality: how does inequality get under the skin? The Gerontologist 49, 333–343.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ferrera, M and Rhodes, M (2013) Recasting European Welfare States. London: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fiske, A, Wetherell, JL and Gatz, M (2009) Depression in older adults. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology 5, 363–389.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Friedrich, MJ (2017) Depression is the leading cause of disability around the world. JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association 317, 1517–1517.Google ScholarPubMed
Fullerton, CA, Busch, AB, Normand, SLT, McGuire, TG and Epstein, AM (2011) Ten-year trends in quality of care and spending for depression: 1996 through 2005. Archives of General Psychiatry 68, 1218–1226.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gadit, AA (2004) Out-of-pocket expenditure for depression among patients attending private community psychiatric clinics in Pakistan. Journal of Mental Health Policy and Economics 7, 23–28.Google ScholarPubMed
Gardner, J and Oswald, AJ (2007) Money and mental wellbeing: a longitudinal study of medium-sized lottery wins. Journal of Health Economics 26, 49–60.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Golberstein, E (2015) The effects of income on mental health: evidence from the social security notch. Journal of Mental Health Policy and Economics 18, 27.Google ScholarPubMed
Hansen, C, Hausman, J and Newey, W (2008) Estimation with many instrumental variables. Journal of Business & Economic Statistics 26, 398–422.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harman, JS, Kelleher, KJ, Reynolds, CF and Pincus, HA (2004) Out-of-pocket healthcare expenditures of older Americans with depression. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society 52, 809–8–3.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Heller-Sahlgren, G (2017) Retirement blues. Journal of Health Economics 54, 66–78.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hochman, O and Skopek, N (2013) The impact of wealth on subjective well-being: a comparison of three welfare-state regimes. Research in Social Stratification and Mobility 34, 127–141.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huang, C, Li, H, Liu, PW and Zhang, J (2009) Why does spousal education matter for earnings? Assortative mating and cross-productivity. Journal of Labor Economics 27, 633–652.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hudson, CG (2005) Socioeconomic status and mental illness: tests of the social causation and selection hypotheses. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry 75, 3–18.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Huijts, T, Stornes, P, Eikemo, TA, Bambra, C and HiNews Consortium (2017) Prevalence of physical and mental non-communicable diseases in Europe: findings from the European Social Survey (2014) special module on the social determinants of health. European Journal of Public Health 27, 8–13.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Karanikolos, M, Mladovsky, P, Cylus, J, Thomson, S, Basu, S, Stuckler, D, Mackenbach, JP and McKee, M (2013) Financial crisis, austerity, and health in Europe. The Lancet 381, 1323–1331.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kemppainen, T (2012) Well-being in Socio-political Context. European Welfare Regimes in Comparison. Studies in Social Security and Health. Helsinki: Kela, Research Department.Google Scholar
Kim, B and Ruhm, CJ (2012) Inheritances, health and death. Health Economics 21, 127–144.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kim, Y and Yang, B (2011) Relationship between catastrophic health expenditures and household incomes and expenditure patterns in South Korea. Health Policy 100, 239–246.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lanari, D and Bussini, O (2012) International migration and health inequalities in later life. Ageing & Society 32, 935–962.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lerner, D and Henke, RM (2008) What does research tell us about depression, job performance, and work productivity? Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine 50, 401–410.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lindahl, M (2005) Estimating the effect of income on health and mortality using lottery prizes as an exogenous source of variation in income. Journal of Human Resources 40, 144–168.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lorant, V, Croux, C, Weich, S, Deliège, D, Mackenbach, J and Ansseau, M (2007) Depression and socio-economic risk factors: 7-year longitudinal population study. British Journal of Psychiatry 190, 293–298.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lorant, V, Deliège, D, Eaton, W, Robert, A, Philippot, P and Ansseau, M (2003) Socioeconomic inequalities in depression: a meta-analysis. American Journal of Epidemiology 157, 98–112.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Martikainen, P, Adda, J, Ferrie, JE, Smith, GD and Marmot, M (2003) Effects of income and wealth on GHQ depression and poor self-rated health in white collar women and men in the Whitehall II study. Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health 57, 718–723.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
McInerney, M, Mellor, JM and Nicholas, LH (2013) Recession depression: mental health effects of the 2008 stock market crash. Journal of Health Economics 32, 1090–1104.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mulatu, MS and Schooler, C (2002) Causal connections between socio-economic status and health: reciprocal effects and mediating mechanisms. Journal of Health and Social Behavior 43, 22.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Muntaner, C, Eaton, WW, Miech, R, and O'campo, P (2004) Socioeconomic position and major mental disorders. Epidemiologic Reviews 26, 53–62.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pan, X and Sambamoorthi, U (2015) Health care expenditures associated with depression in adults with cancer. Journal of Community and Supportive Oncology 13, 240.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Popova, Y and Kozhevnikova, M (2013) Interdependence of HDI and budget redistribution within the Scandinavian and European social models. Economics and Management 18, 562–575.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Prince, MJ, Beekam, ATF, Deeg, DJH, Fuhrer, R, Jonker, C, Kivela, SL, Lawlor, BA, Lobo, A, Magnusson, H, Meller, I, Van Oyen, H, Reischies, F, Roelands, M, Skoog, I, Turrina, C and Copeland, JRM (1999) Depression symptoms in late life assessed using the EURO-D scale. British Journal of Psychiatry 174, 339–345.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
SHARE (2018) Release Guide 6.1.0. Available online at http://www.shareproject.org/fileadmin/pdf_documentation/SHARE_release_guide_6-1-0.pdf. [Accessed 15 February 2019].Google Scholar
Schnalzenberger, M (2016) Causal effect of income on health: investigating two closely related policy reforms in Austria. Journal of the Economics of Ageing 7, 6–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schultz, R, Beach, SR, Ives, DG, Martire, LM, Ariyo, AA and Kop, WJ (2000) Association between depression and mortality in older adults: the Cardiovascular Health Study. Archives of Internal Medicine 160, 1761–1768.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schwandt, H (2018) Wealth shocks and health outcomes: evidence from stock market fluctuations. Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR), Discussion Paper DP12562. Available at https://ssrn.com/abstract=3098158.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Semyonov, M, Lewin-Epstein, N and Maskileyson, D (2013) Where wealth matters more for health: the wealth–health gradient in 16 countries. Social Science & Medicine 81, 10–17.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Shavers, VL (2007) Measurement of socioeconomic status in health disparities research. Journal of the National Medical Association 99, 1013–1022.Google ScholarPubMed
Staiger, D and Stock, JH (1997) Instrumental variables regression with weak instruments. Econometrica 65, 557–586.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stock, JH, Wright, JH and Yogo, M (2002) A survey of weak instruments and weak identification in generalized method of moments. Journal of Business & Economic Statistics 20, 518–529.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thoits, PA (2010) Stress and health: major findings and policy implications. Journal of Health and Social Behavior 51, S41–S53.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Turvey, CL, Schultz, SK, Beglinger, L and Klein, DM (2009) A longitudinal community-based study of chronic illness, cognitive and physical function, and depression. American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry 17, 632–641.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ubel, PA, Abernethy, AP and Zafar, SY (2013) Full disclosure – out-of-pocket costs as side effects. New England Journal of Medicine 369, 1484–1486.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Van de Velde, S, Bracke, P, Levecque, K and Meuleman, B (2010) Gender differences in depression in 25 European countries after eliminating measurement bias in the CES-D 8. Social Science Research 39, 396–404.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van Rooij, M, Lusardi, A and Alessie, R (2011) Financial literacy and stock market participation. Journal of Financial Economics 101, 449–472.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van Rooij, MC, Lusardi, A and Alessie, RJ (2012) Financial literacy, retirement planning and household wealth. The Economic Journal 122, 449–478.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
World Health Organization (WHO) (2017 a) Depression and Other Common Mental Disorders Global Health Estimates (WHO/MSD/MER/2017.2). Available at http://www.who.int/mental_health/management/depression/prevalence_global_health_estimates/en/.Google Scholar
World Health Organization (WHO) (2017 b) World Population Ageing 2017 – Highlights. New York, NY: United Nations. Available at http://www.un.org/en/development/desa/population/publications/pdf/ageing/WPA2017_Highlights.pdf.Google Scholar
Woo, JM, Kim, W, Hwang, TY, Frick, KD, Choi, BH, Seo, YJ, Kang, EH, Kim, SJ, Ham, BJ, Lee, JS and Park, YL (2011) Impact of depression on work productivity and its improvement after outpatient treatment with antidepressants. Value in Health 14, 475–482.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed