CAREER EFFECTS OF MENTAL HEALTH*
BARBARA BIASI, YALE AND NBER,
MICHAEL S. DAHL, AARHUS UNIVERSITY, AND
PETRA MOSER, NYU, NBER, AND CEPR
OCTOBER 17, 2018
One in twelve Americans is affected by a mental health disorder. This paper examines the
effects of such disorders and treatment, using individual-level registry data on mental health
diagnoses. We find that mental health conditions carry immense earnings penalties:
Compared with the population, people with depression earn 35 percent less, people with
bipolar disorder earn 38 percent less, and people with schizophrenia earn a full 74 percent
less. These results hold when we compare people with a disorder to their siblings, controlling
for a person’s family background. People with mental health disorders also face substantially
higher risks of zero earnings and disability. To investigate the causal effects of mental health,
we examine the approval of lithium as a treatment for bipolar disorder (BD) in 1976.
Baseline estimates compare career outcomes for people with and without access to treatment
in their early 20s, the typical age of onset for BD. We find that access to treatment eliminates
one third of the earnings penalty from BD. Moreover, it reduces the risk of zero earnings by
more than one third, and it reduces the risk of disability by nearly two thirds. Notably, both
the costs of mental health disorders and the benefits from treatments are concentrated in the
bottom quantiles of earnings.
KEYWORDS: MENTAL HEALTH, BIPOLAR DISORDER, DEPRESSION, SCHIZOPHRENIA, EARNINGS,
ENTREPRENEURSHIP, AND DISABILITY.
JEL CODES: M13, J23, J24, O31, I12
*
We thank Manasi Deshpande, Camelia Kahmen, Sheri Johnson, Jonathan Feinstein, Lars Skipper as
well as seminar participants at Aarhus, the AEA, and the NBER for helpful comments. Dahl thanks
Statistics Denmark and the Department of Management of Aarhus for research support. Moser
gratefully acknowledges financial support from the National Science Foundation through CAREER
grant 1151180.
One in twelve Americans is affected by a mental health disorder, such as depression,
schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder (National Institute of Mental Health, NIMH 2015),1
These disorders carry enormous costs. For example, the World Health Organization (WHO,
2011) argues that mental illness is the leading cause of lost disability-adjusted life years. Yet
a growing literature in clinical psychology emphasizes the upsides of mental health disorders,
linking them with increased creativity and innovation (Jamison 1993, Kyaga et al 2015,
Powers et al 2015, Holm-Hadulla et al 2010). This literature often points to the experiences
of writers (such as Ernest Hemingway, Robert Lowell, Theodore Roethke, and Virginia
Woolf), composers (Robert Schumann and Hugo Wolf), and visual artist (Jackson Pollock
and Edvard Munch), who had bipolar depression (BD, Rothenberg 2001, pp. 131-2, Jamison
1993).
Systematic analyses of mental health disorders face two major empirical challenges.
The first challenge stems from the paucity of individual-level data on mental health. Without
such data, studies have generalized from case studies of prominent writers and artists even
though their experiences may not be reflective of those of the broader population. A second
challenge lies in the incidence of mental health, which is not random. For example, siblings
and half-siblings of people with bipolar disorder or schizophrenia are significantly more
likely have either disorder (Lichtenstein et al 2009). Moreover, access to diagnoses and
treatment is likely to vary across families, especially when access to health care is unequal.
This paper systematically examines the effects of mental health on a person’s
earnings and their risk of disability. To resolve data constraints, we link individual-level
registry data on mental health diagnoses with information on career outcomes for the
population of Denmark, including 2.4 million people born between 1946 and 1975. To
investigate the causal effects of changes in mental health, we exploit the approval of an
effective treatment for BD.
These data show that mental health disorders are associated with large earnings
penalties, especially for people in the bottom quantiles of earnings. People with depression
earn 36 percent less compared with the population; people with BD earn 38 percent less, and
people with schizophrenia earn 74 percent less. All results hold in regressions with controls
for family fixed effects, which compare people with BD with their healthy siblings. Splitting
the sample at the median of earnings shows that earnings penalties are most severe below the
median. Among people whose earnings fall below the median, those with depression earn 29
1
National Institute of Mental Health, 2015, citing evidence from the National Comorbidity Survey Replication
(NCS-R, Kessler and Meikangras 2004, Kessler et al 2005).
1
percent less. People with BD earn 26 percent less, and those with schizophrenia earn 72 less.
By comparison, earnings penalties are small above the median, with only 2 percent for
depression, 6 percent for BD, and 6 percent for schizophrenia.
Mental health disorders may also increase the risks of extremely low earnings and
reduce a person’s ability to climb into the top quantiles of earnings. Earnings data confirm
that people with depression are 52 percent less likely than the population to enter the top
decile of earnings and 99 percent more likely to decline into the bottom decile. People with
schizophrenia face an enormous risk of declining into the bottom deciles, 3.2 times more than
the population.
Compared with other disorders, BD is associated with a lower reduction in the
chances of entering the top echelons (30 percent less), but a larger risk of declining in the
bottom deciles compared with depression (120 percent). These findings are particularly
interesting in light of experimental evidence from clinical psychology, which suggest that BD
is associated with a preference for risky gambles (Mason et al. 2014, Reddy et al. 2011).
Citing examples of prominent executives, bipolar disorder in particular has often been called
a “CEO’s disease” (Cooper et al. 1988). In April 2017 Elon Musk made headlines when he
described his “great highs, terrible lows,” and when someone asked whether he was bipolar
responded “Yeah” but then followed up with: “Maybe not medically tho.”2 Stories like these
fuel a perception of a link between bipolar disease and business leadership, which we can
examine systematically in our data. Contrary to popular beliefs, however, registry data show
that people with BD are 12 percent less likely to be self-employed, 35 percent less likely to
become an executive, and 16 percent less likely to serve as an executive in a start-up firm.
Similarly, people with depression are 12 percent less likely to be self-employed, 55 percent
less likely to become an executive, and 46 percent less likely to be a start-up executive. All
results are robust to controlling for a person’s family background, through fixed effects.
Instead of guiding people toward entrepreneurship, mental health disorders may
reduce earnings by impairing individuals’ ability to hold a full-time job and increase their
risks of disability. We find that people with depression and BD are 110 percent more likely to
have no earnings at all. People schizophrenia are 3.36 times more likely to have zero
earnings. People with depression and BD are also 1.2 times and 2.7 times more likely to
receive disability pay. People with schizophrenia are 7 times more likely to be on disability.
All of these results are robust to controlling for family fixed effects.
2
“Elon Musk admits to ‘unrelenting stress,’ says he may be bipolar” Mike Murphy, Market Watch, April 1,
2017.
2
While these correlations are informative, they cannot identify the causal effects of
changes in mental health. For example, people with depression may earn less because they
are unable to work at their full capacity. But, conversely, low earnings may also create
emotional pressures that trigger depression. To address these issues, we exploit a major
change in the treatment of bipolar disorder (BD). In 1976 Denmark’s equivalent to the
Federal Drug Administration, the Lægemiddelstyrelsen, approved the mood-stabilizer lithium
as a maintenance treatment for BD.3 Medical research has shown that lithium is exceptionally
effective in reducing the risk of hospitalization and suicide for people with BD (Angst et al.
2005, Kessler et al 2005a).
To investigate the effects of access to treatment, we first compare career outcomes for
people with and without access to treatment in their early 20s.4 We use a person’s early 20s
as a cutoff point because it coincides with the typical age of onset for BD (Kessler et al
2003b). In addition, a person’s early 20s are a critical period for their career path (Kahn 2010,
Oreopoulos et al. 2012). We find that access to treatment eliminates nearly one third of the
earnings penalty associated with BD, with a reduction from 36 to 24 percent controlling for
cohort and year fixed effects. Regressions with family fixed effects yield similar results.5
Importantly, the benefits from treatment appear to the concentrated in the bottom
quantiles of earnings. Splitting the population at the median of earnings shows that the
benefits of treatment fall almost entirely in the bottom quantiles of earnings. Access to
treatment reduced the risks of a person’s decline in the bottom decile by 13 percent (26
percent compared with siblings). Treatment also greatly reduces the risk of zero earnings (by
33 percent compared with the population and by 36 percent compared with siblings). These
benefits appear to be driven by massive reduction in the risk of disability. Access to treatment
reduces the risk of disability by 59 percent compared with the population (from 369 percent
to 152 percent compared with the population) and by 57 percent compared with their healthy
siblings (from 363 percent to 156 percent).
Effects are significant, albeit much smaller, in the top quantiles of earnings. Access to
treatment increases a person’s chance of breaking into the top percentile by 21 percent
3
Maintenance treatments aim to delay and moderate future episodes of BD, as well as reducing treatments
between episodes, while acute treatments aim to mitigate an episode that is in progress already.
4
All regressions control for cohort and time fixed effects. Cohort fixed effects control for changes in the
stigmatization of mental health and other unobservable factors that may vary across birth cohorts (Crocetti et al
1974, Link et al. 1999, Phelan et al. 2000). Year fixed effects control for changes in aggregate rates of
employment and other economic factors that may influence wages and employment over time.
5
Complementary regressions estimate cohort-specific effects of access to treatment. These estimates confirm
that treatment carries the largest benefits for people who have access by age twenty.
3
compared with siblings. Analyses of occupations suggest that treatment improves a person’s
chance of becoming an executive. People with BD who did not have access to lithium in their
20s are 55 percent less likely to become executives compared with their siblings. Access to
treatment eliminates 60 percent of this gap. People with BD are also 21 percent less likely to
be executives in start-ups compared with the population, and 1.2 times less likely compared
with their siblings. Access to treatment eliminates this difference. Cohorts with access to
treatment are only 15 percent less likely to become executives.6 People with BD are 28
percent more likely to be self-employed compared with the population. Access to treatment
reduces two thirds of this gap.
Medical research indicates that “healthy” siblings may be affected by BD, even if
they are not diagnosed (Mortensen et al 2003, Kruger 2006).7 To examine such effects we
compare healthy siblings of people with BD with the population. These comparisons indicate
that siblings earn only slightly (6.6 percent) less than the population, and that there is a
negative, but small effect of treatment. We also exploit variation in the intensity of mental
health disordered, measured as the number of diagnoses over the course of a person’s career.
These intensity estimates confirm the main results: Benefits from access to treatment are
more pronounced for people with a more severe or persistent form of the disorder. Additional
robustness checks move “treatment” to 1974, when lithium was approved in the United
States. All results are robust to this change.
Compared with the United States, medical coverage is nearly uniform in Denmark;
with restrictions on Obamacare this gap is expanding further.8 In the United States, the share
of uninsured people among adults with mental illness ranges from 3.3 percent in
Massachusetts to 23.8 percent in South Carolina. Expansions in Medicaid coverage have
increased access to psychotropic prescriptions for mental illness by 22 percent (Maclean,
Cook, Carson, and Pesko 2017). Our findings indicate that such expansions in coverage can
create major welfare gains by increasing earnings and reducing the risks of disability,
especially among less privileged groups.
I. BACKGROUND ON MENTAL HEALTH DISORDERS
6
Among 7,007 people with BD without access to treatment, 148 (2.1 percent) become executives, compared
with 70,112 among 870,785 (8.0 percent) in the population. With access to treatment, 222 among 11,272 people
(2.0 percent) with BD become executives, compared with 134,156 among 1,653,540 people in the population.
7
Analyses of US data indicate that people with a family history of BD are more likely to be affected by a milder
form of (subthreshold) BD than the population (Judd and Akiskal 2003).
8
http://www.mentalhealthamerica.net/issues/mental-health-america-access-care-data, accessed July 2, 2018.
4
This section describes the three mental disorders that are the focus of this paper –
depression, bipolar disorder (BD), and schizophrenia, and summarizes results from recent
research that are most relevant to our analysis.
Depression (or major depressive disorder, MDD) is a common and serious mental
disorder that negatively affects how people feel, think, or act. Symptoms include sadness, a
loss of interest in activities, trouble sleeping, a loss of energy, difficulties concentrating or
making decisions, and thoughts of death or suicide. For a diagnosis of depression, symptoms
must last at least two weeks.
In the NCS-R survey of 9,282 people in the continental United States, 16.2 percent
had been affected by depression at least once in their lifetime, and 6.6 percent had been
affected within 12 months before the interview (Kessler et al. 2003b). Among respondents
with depression, the median age of onset was 32, with an interquartile range of 25 years,
between ages 19 and 44.
Schizophrenia is a chronic brain disorder that affects about one percent of the
populations. Possible symptoms include hallucinations (such as hearing voices, paranoid
delusions and exaggerated or distorted perception), a decrease in the ability to initiate plans,
speak, or express emotions, as well as trouble with thinking, concentration, and memory.
Although schizophrenia affects men and women about equally, men often show first signs of
schizophrenia in their early 20s while women experience symptoms in their late 20s and early
30s. Rates of schizophrenia are similar in all ethnic groups around the world. Although the
precise causes of schizophrenia are unknown, researchers have identified several genetic and
environmental factors, as well as life events that contribute to the disorder.9
Bipolar I Disorder (thereafter BD) is a brain disorder that causes extreme shifts in
mood, energy, and activity levels, limiting a person’s ability to carry out day-to-day tasks.
Compared with depression, BD is less prevalent but more persistent and impairing (Kessler,
Merinkas, and Wang 2007). According to the WHO, bipolar disorder affects about 60 million
people worldwide, with the large majority remaining untreated.10 The American Psychiatric
Association (2000) defines Bipolar I Disorder by at least one lifetime manic or mixed
episode. To meet diagnostic criteria, mania must last at least one week or require
hospitalization. Symptoms of mania include irritability, euphoria, a need for sleep, grandiose
ideas, impulsivity, increased racing thoughts, flight of ideas, increased activity, and
9
American Psychiatric Association, Information for Families, available at https://www.psychiatry.org/patientsfamilies/schizophrenia/what-is-schizophrenia (accessed March 16, 2018)
10
World Health Organization Fact Sheet, April 2017 (http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs396/en/).
5
distractibility. Mixed episodes combine symptoms of mania with and simultaneous symptoms
of depression for at least one week. A person can have BD without depression, though many
people with BD also experience symptoms of depression.11 Suicide risks for people with BD,
are extremely high. Jamison (2000) finds that one in two people with BD attempt suicide at
least once. Goldberg et al (2005) find that one in three people with BD attempt to kill
themselves.12
Although the precise causes of BD are unknown, available evidence points towards
differences in the brain systems that regulate emotions and a dysregulation in the use of
dopamine (Miklowitz and Johnson 2006, p. 199).13 Imagining studies of the brain have found
that people with BD and their family members have less grey matter and lower levels of
activity in the pre-frontal cortex, an area of the brain that is typically associated with
moderating “good” and “bad” behaviors and with other types of executive functions (Drevets
et al. 1997, Krueger 2006, and Appendix Figure 1).14 Mason et al. (2014) show that brain
circuits involved in pursuing rewarding experiences (the nucleus accumbens) are more
strongly activated in people with BD, guiding them towards riskier gambles.15
11
“BD II is defined by at least one lifetime hypomanic episode, along with at least one episode of major
depression. Hypomania is characterized by the same symptoms as mania but lasts for shorter intervals (four or
more days) and, although noticeable to others, is not associated with functional impairment. Episodes of major
depression are defined by two or more weeks of intense sadness or loss of interests, accompanied by symptoms
such as fatigue, insomnia, psychomotor agitation or retardation, weight gain or loss, cognitive dysfunction,
feelings of worthlessness, and suicidal ideation or attempts. ‘Converting’ from BD II to BD I is rare”
(Miklowitz and Johnson 2006, pp. 200-201).
12
Angst et al (2005) follow 406 people with BD who were admitted to a Psychiatric University Hospital in
Zurich between 1959 and 1963; 11 percent of them committed suicide. Goldstein et al. 2005 find that one in
three people with BD attempt suicide at least once (N=405 people with BD). People with BD are also often
affected by other (comorbid) disorders, most commonly attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, oppositional
defiant disorder, agora-phobia, panic disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, alcohol dependence, and drug abuse
(Kessler et al 2005b).
13
Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that helps regulate reward-motivating behavior. Drugs that increase
dopamine-related activity in the brain, such as amphetamine, have been found to increase mood, energy and
talkativeness in people without BD (Willner 1995). People with BD show pronounced behavioral responses to
amphetamine (Anand et al. 2000).
14
Drevets et al (1997) analyze brain activity using positron emission tomographic (PET) images. In a sample of
20 family members of people with BD and unipolar depression, they localize an area of abnormally decreased
activity in the pre-frontal cortex. Krueger (2006, N=18) find that siblings of people with BD are more likely to
have physical markers of BD, even if they are not diagnosed with BD. Naranjo et al. (2001) link mood disorders
(such as BD) to regions of the brain that are believed to be involved in reward motivation (including the nucleus
accumbens, the ventral tegmentum, and the striatum).
15
They find that the nucleus accumbens, the pleasure center of the brain, is more strongly activated in subjects
with BD. By comparison, the prefrontal cortex is more strongly activated in control subjects, guiding them
towards safe gambles. Experimental evidence from a balloon analogue risk task (BART) analysis suggests that
people with BD take the same levels of risks as other people, even though they score higher on self-reported
tests of impulsiveness (Reddy et al 2011, 68 people with BD, 38 with schizophrenia, and 35 without either
disorder). Lennox et al. (2004) find that people with BD who are in an episode of mania show less of a neural
response in the amygdala and subgenul anterior cingulate cortex of their brains (Lennox et al. 2004).
6
Twin studies suggest that BD has a strong genetic component. Aida (1997) finds
concordance rates around 57 percent for identical twins, compared with only 14 percent for
non-identical twins. Cordno et al (2002) show that identical twins of manic patients face an
elevated risk of mania (36.4 percent), as well as schizophrenia (13.6%).16 Yet only a small
portion of the incidence rate of BD – less than 2 percent - can be explained by genes (e.g.,
Power et al 2015),17 suggesting a major role for environmental factors. Some of these factors
may be related to childhood trauma. Children whose mother dies before their fifth birthday
have a four-fold increased risk of bipolar disorder.
The median age of onset for BD is lies around 18 years (Kessler, Merikangas and
Wang 2007, p. 143). We exploit this fact to compare people with differential access to
treatment when they entered their twenties. In alternative specifications, we also separately
estimate age-specific effects.
New Treatments in the 1970s
On January 1974, the American FDA approved lithium, a mood stabilizer, as a
maintenance therapy for BD.18 In Denmark, the Sundhedsstyrelsen (Denmark’s equivalent to
the FDA) approved lithium as a maintenance treatment for BD on December 14, 1976 (Bech
et al. 1976). By 2005, the American FDA had approved four additional mood stabilizers for
the treatment of BD: the anticonvulsant divalproex sodium (also known as valproate or
valpro), the antipsychotic chloprozaine, the atypical antipschotic olanzapine, and the
anticonvulsant lamotrigine.
Complementary treatments (mostly psychosocial interventions (“therapy”) and drug
treatments through antidepressants) also improved substantially after 1974.19 Interest in the
application of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) began in the early 1980s (Cochran 1984),
after the introduction of lithium. Recent approaches in CBT focus on psychoeducation and
16
BD appears to share genetic vulnerabilities with both schizophrenia and depression. Cordno et al (2002)
shows that monozygotic co-twins of people with schizophrenia are at a higher risk of mania (8.2%) and
schizophrenia. Berretini (2003) finds that first-degree relatives of people with BD and schizophrenia have a
higher risk of schizoaffective and major depressive disorders.
17
Using population data for Iceland (including 500 people with BD and 583 with schizophrenia) Power et al
(2015) find that polygenic risk scores explain only 5.5 percent in the incidence of schizophrenia and less than
1.2 percent of the observed variance in the incidence of BD, suggesting a large role for environmental factors.
18
Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavia 1976, Price and Heninger 1994, McInnis et al. 2014. It took 35 years, until
2009, for the FDA to approve lithium was not approved as a treatment for BD depression (Shorter 2009, p. 3).
19
By 2005, treatment guidelines recommended that BD depression should only be treated with with
antidepressants if other agents have failed, and then only in combination with a mood stabilizing or an atypical
antipsychotic agent (Miklowitz and Johnson 2006, p. 215). Administered without a mood stabilizer, standard
antidepressants can induce mania and accelerate mood cycling in 20-40 percent of patients (Altshuler et al 1995,
Goldberg and Whiteside 2002).
7
cognitive restructuring to challenge overly negative or overly positive cognitions.
Psychoeducation also provides patients with strategies to identify symptoms and implement
procedures to prevent a relapse (mostly by taking emergency medication), promote drug
adherence, minimize risk factors (such as substance abuse or interpersonal stress) and
maximize protective factors (such as regular sleep/wake cycles, Miklowitz and Johnson 2006,
p. 216).
Among these treatments, lithium has the strongest scientific record of controlling
mania and preventing recurrences. BD goes into remission for 60-70% of people on lithium
(Goldberg 2000) with BD go into remission. Summarizing the existing empirical evidence,
Davis et al. 1999 concluded that “relapse rates on placebo average 74%, on lithium, 29%.”
(Davis et al. 1999, cited in Shorter 2009). In clinical studies, lithium consumption is
associated a significant reduction in the risk of hospitalization and with a 7-fold reduction in
suicide rates for people with BD (Tondo et al 1999).20
Side effects of lithium treatment include motor tremors, weight gain, feelings of
sedation, stomach irritations, thirst, and kidney problems (Miklowitz and Johnson 2006, p.
214). Hand tremors affect 25 to 50 percent of patients, while abnormalities in the thyroid and
parathyroid affected 10 to 20 percent (Price and Heninger 1994, McInnis et al. 2014).
Cognitive impairment is more difficult to measure empirically, and, to the best of our
knowledge, there is no conclusive evidence to date on the effects of lithium on creativity.
Drug treatment for lithium is typically given in stages. The first involves drugs for
acute treatment of an episode that has already developed. The second consists in maintenance
treatment, which aims to delay and moderate future episodes as well as reduce symptoms
between episodes.
In this paper, we estimate the effects of access to treatment, rather than treatment per
se, because many people with BD stop their medication against medical advice. This is due in
part to side effects and to the feeling of missing “periods of exuberance or creativity
(Goodwin and Jamison 2007; Jamison and Akiskal 1983, Aasgard and Vestergaard 1990).
Only one in five patients on lithium take it continuously (Weiss et al. 1998), and up to 60
percent of people with BD stop taking their drugs regularly within a year after a manic or
20
The mechanisms through which these improvements work is as yet unclear. Bearden et al. (2007) find that
bipolar people who take lithium have more gray matter in the cingulate and paralimbic regions of the brain,
which are believed to regulate the ability to maintain motivation, attention, and emotional control (N=28 adults
with BD - including 18 adults who were treated with lithium - and a control group of 28 adults without BD.)
Using high-resolution MRI and cortical pattern-matching methods to map differences in gray matter, Nauert
(2011) shows that lithium increases the volume of the hippocampal and amygdala, two brain regions whose
volume is reduced by BD.
8
mixed episode. People at the greatest risk for non-adherence tend to be younger, have more
severe illnesses or recent hospitalizations, and are more likely to have comorbid personality
disorders or alcohol and substance disorders (Colom et al 2000). The costs of stopping
medications are severe, especially when done rapidly, greatly increasing the risks of relapse
or suicide (Keck et a. 1998, Suppses et al. 1993, Tondo and Baldessarini (2000).
II. DATA
The main data cover mental health diagnoses, earnings, and disability payments for
the population of Denmark, including 2,524,325 people in birth cohorts from 1946 to 1975.21
Among these 2.5 million people, 80,361 have been diagnosed with depression (3.2 percent
Table 1), 36,736 with schizophrenia (1.5 percent), and 18,729 people with bipolar disorder
(BD, 0.7 percent).22
Individual-Level Registry Data on Diagnoses
Individual-level data on diagnoses data come from the Central Psychiatric Register
(Landspatientregistret for Psykiatri Diagnoser), which includes all mental health diagnoses
in Denmark between January 1, 1995 and December 31, 2015. The register uses the World
Health Organization (WHO)’s International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related
Health Problems (ICD-10) to classify mental health disorders.23 Appendix Table A3 includes
a detailed description of this classification.
Baseline estimates examine people who have ever been affected by a mental health
disorder, with and without access to treatment in their early 20s. Since diagnoses are only
recorded after 1995, we can only observe people who were born after 1974 when they turn
20. If people who have BD later in life did not have it in their early 20s, this feature of the
diagnosis data attenuates the estimates. If people with BD in their early 20s recover and
receive no diagnosis of BD after 1995, we assign people with BD to the control group, which
21
These data are administered by Statistics Denmark. Appendix Table A1 describes the individual registries.
These shares are comparable to US estimates based on the National Comorbidity Survey (NCS, Kessler et al.
2005) for BD (1 percent) but substantially lower than US estimates for depression (16.6 percent).
23
See http://apps.who.int/classifications/icd10/browse/2016/en#/F30-F39. The National Institute of Mental
Health explains that bipolar I disorder is “defined by manic episodes that last at least 7 days, or by manic
symptoms that are so severe that the person needs immediate hospital care. Usually depressive episodes occur as
well, typically lasting at least 2 weeks. Episodes of depression with mixed features (having depression and
manic symptoms at the same time) are also possible.” US Department of Health and Human Services, National
Institute of Mental Health. First-Generation Versus Second-Generation Antipsychotics in Adults: Comparative
Effectiveness. (2017). The American Psychiatric Association (5th edition) defines a manic episode as a "distinct
period of abnormally and persistently elevated, expansive, or irritable mood and abnormally and persistently
increased activity or energy, lasting at least 1 week and present most of the day, nearly every day (or any
duration if hospitalization is necessary)."
22
9
would further attenuate our estimates. Medical studies, however, show that virtually all
people with BD experience recurrences of their illness, so that we are people who have BD in
their early 20s are likely to be captured by diagnoses after 1995 (Gitlin et al 1995).24
We construct indicators for people with at least one diagnosis of the three most
frequent mental health disorders: depression, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia.25
• Depression identifies people with one or more diagnoses of major depressive disorder
(diagnosis code ICD-10: F32): “Mild, moderate, severe or recurrent depressive
episodes, the patient suffers from lowering of mood, reduction of energy, and
decrease in activity.”
• Bipolar disorder (BD) includes people with at least one diagnosis of bipolar disorder
or mania (ICD-10: F30 and ICD-10: F31). BD (ICD-10: F31) is described as “A
disorder characterized by […] some occasions of an elevation of mood and increased
energy and activity (hypomania or mania) and on others of a lowering of mood and
decreased energy and activity (depression).” Mania (ICD-10: F30) is described as “A
disorder […] which varies from carefree joviality to almost uncontrollable
excitement, […] accompanied by increased energy, resulting in overactivity, pressure
of speech, and a decreased need for sleep.”
• Schizophrenia identifies people with at least one diagnosis of “schizophrenia,
schizotypal, delusional disorders and a larger group of acute and transient psychotic
disorders” (ICD-10: F20-F29).
Rates of diagnosis of BD and schizophrenia are stable across birth cohorts, around an average
of 7 people with BD per 1,000, and 14 people with schizophrenia per 1,000. Rates of
diagnosis for depression increase slightly across diagnoses, from 28 per 1000 people for birth
cohorts until 1956 to 33 per 1000 people for later cohorts (Appendix Figure A4).
Earnings and Disability
To calculate total earnings, we add income from wages and self-employment for each
person (Appendix Table A4). We convert earnings from Danish Kroner (DKK) to in 2015
dollars using the Danish CPI and the 2015 exchange rate. Individuals with positive earnings
earn $44,705 on average, with a standard deviation of $42,421 (Appendix Table A4).
24
For people born in 1975 (which we observe for the first time when they are 20) the median age at onset of
BD/Mania is 30 (Appendix Figures A2 and A3).
25
These variables are not mutually exclusive: each individual can be diagnosed with different disorders over his
or her lifetime. Approximately 0.4 percent of the population receives diagnoses for more than one type of
disorder between 1995 and 2015. Appendix Table A5 tabulates comorbidities by disorder.
10
A separate variable measures disability receipts (førtidspension). People with
disabilities apply for these benefits with their municipal government, which evaluates their
ability to work (ressource-forløb), and assigns payments based on severity of the disability
and on family status. People who receive disability can work part-time and earn up to
$46,720; if they earn more they forfeit disability pay for that calendar year.26 Eleven percent
of people with depression, BD, or schizophrenia receive disability pay in an average year,
including 5,051 people with BD (28 percent of all people with BD), 13,871 with depression
(17 percent), and 17,243 with schizophrenia (47 percent, Table 1).27
An additional variable captures people who receive any form of welfare, including
retirement pensions (received by 1.5 percent of individuals with depression, 3.4 percent with
BD, and 8.0 percent with schizophrenia), unemployment insurance (received by 1.9, 1.9, and
1.7 percent, respectively), and long-term unemployment (2.6, 1.8, and 1.9 percent,
respectively). Similarly, we construct indicator control variables for people who work parttime work or are enrolled in education (Appendix Table A1).
Self-Employment and Executive Jobs
To examine the potential effects of BD and treatments on occupational choice, we use
information on individual occupations from the Danish employment registry. Occupations are
classified according to the International Labor Organization’s International Standard
Classification of Occupations (ISCO, Appendix Table A2).
To examine the links between mental health, business leadership, and
entrepreneurship we create variables that distinguish self-employed, executives, and
executives in small and young (start-up) firms. Executives are people who hold top
management positions, such as chief executive officer (CEO) chief operating officer (COO),
chief financial officers (CFO, Appendix Table A1). Our data include 204,268 executives; 500
of them have been diagnosed with BD, including 300 who had access to treatment in their
twenties. Start-up Executives are executives in small and young firms that are less than 5
26
After a reform on March 1, 2013 restricted disability pay to Danish citizens below 40, the number of new
recipients declined from 14,450 in 2012 to 5,684 in 2014. Robustness checks exclude years 2013-2015.
27
A total of 2,178,704 person-year observations (6 percent) have disability pay and positive earnings (with an
average of $332 per year). This total includes 76,594 people with BD (89 percent of all people with BD on
disability), who have earnings of $286 per year on average. Another 263,953 people on disability with
depression have positive earnings (90 percent of all people with BD on disability, with average earnings of $399
per year), and 213,941 people with schizophrenia on disability have positive earnings (88 percent of people with
schizophrenia on disability, average earnings $139 per year).
11
years old and have fewer than 50 full-time employees.28 Our data include 28,614 executives
in start-ups (14 percent of all executives in the data). Among 28,614 executives, 67 have been
diagnosed with BD (0.23 percent), and 45 executives with BDs in start-ups had access to
treatment in their twenties.
Self-employed are is a separate occupational category in the Danish registry data. It
covers self-proprietors who carry unlimited liability for their business (Appendix Table A2).
Family Fixed Effects
To control for unobservable factors that vary across families, we create family fixed
effects using the mother’s social security number. Mother’s social security number is
available for 1,633,106 people whose mother was alive between 1980 and 2015 (69 percent
of the population). Regressions with family fixed effects compare people with mental health
disorders with their siblings. Seventy-five percent of individuals in the labor force have at
least one sibling. Among people with BD, the share of people with siblings is slightly larger
(82 percent).
III. CROSS-SECTIONAL POPULATION ESTIMATES
In the first part of the analyses, we examine earnings and other career outcomes for
people with the three most common mental health disorders: depression, bipolar disorder
(BD) and schizophrenia.
Earnings Penalties from Mental Health
First, we investigate whether mental health disorders are associated with lower
earnings. OLS regressions estimate
(1) log(earningsict)= β1 Depressioni + β2 BDi + β3 Schizophreniai + θc + τt + εict
where the dependent variable log(earningsict) is the natural logarithm of earnings of
individual i, born in cohort c, in the calendar year t. The indicator variable Depression equals
one for people who have been diagnosed with depression at least once. Indicators for BD and
28
Hurst and Pugsley (2011) show that firm size alone is a poor indicator of entrepreneurship, since most small
firms work in established industries and provide established services (such as plumbing or legal advice).
Haltiwanger, Jarmin, and Miranda (2010) find that firm age is an important indicator of entrepreneurship. We
draw information on firm age and size from the general firm statistics registry. This data set includes the date of
establishment for each firm (START_DATO), which allows us to calculate firm age, as well as the number of
full-time equivalent employees (GF_AARSV), which we use as a measure of firm size.
12
Schizophrenia are defined accordingly. Year fixed effects τt control for time-varying factors
that are constant across individuals, such as inflation and fluctuations in unemployment.
Cohort fixed effects θc control for unobservable factors that vary across birth cohorts, such as
changes in the stigmatization of mental health.
OLS estimates show vast earnings penalties for all three mental health disorders.
People with BD earn 38 percent less (with an estimate of -0.478, Table 2, column 1,
significant at 1 percent). People with depression earn 36 percent less (significant at 1
percent), and people with schizophrenia earn 74 percent less (significant at 1 percent).
Comparisons with Siblings
Earnings and the incidence of mental health conditions vary across families. Medical
research has shown that mental health disorders can be triggered by abuse, neglect, the death
of a parent, or other family-related stress (Mortensen et al. 2003). In addition, a person’s
family background and socioeconomic status can influence the odds of diagnosis and
treatment. If families with lower earnings have a higher rate of mental health disorders,
population estimates may overstate the earnings penalties from mental health disorders. To
address this issue we repeat the OLS regressions in equation (1) with controls for family
fixed effects, constructed using mothers’ social security numbers. These specifications
compare people with mental health conditions with their healthy siblings.
Even with controls for a person’s family background, the estimates remain
substantially unchanged. Only estimates for depression are reduced significantly, from 35
percent lower earnings compared with the population to 31 percent compared with health
siblings (Table 2, column 2). These results are particularly striking considering that siblings
may be affected by mental health disorders either indirectly (if parents focus time and
attention on children with mental health disorders) or directly (if siblings are affected by
undiagnosed and untreated forms of a disorder, e.g. Kruger 2006).29 Our results suggest that
these effects are small relative to the earnings penalties for people with the disorder.
Event Studies Around the Diagnosis
In this section we investigate the timing of changes in earnings: If mental health
affects earnings, earnings may decline before a diagnosis, when people first experience
symptoms, and it may take some time for treatments to take effect. To investigate such
29
Siblings may also be affected by “courtesy stigma,” distancing and rejecting family members and other
people who are associated with a devalued group (Hinshaw and Stier 2008, p. 372).
13
changes relative to the year of diagnosis, we estimate equation (1) as an event study for the
10 years before and after the diagnosis:
(2) log(earningsict)
= ∑10k = -10 dk Ci I(t-Y(C)i = k)
+β1 BDi + β2 Depressioni + β3 Schizophreniai
+ θc + τt + εict
where Ci is an indicator for either BD, Depression, or Schizophrenia, , and I() is an indicator
function for each of ten years before and after the diagnosis. The year immediately preceding
the diagnosis is the excluded period. In this specification, the coefficient dk estimates the
earnings difference between individual i with condition Ci, k years after his diagnosis. We
normalize d-1 to be 0.
Time-varying estimates show that people with BD drop earn almost one fourth less in
the year of their diagnosis compared with the previous year (Figure 1). Estimates for BD are
between those for depression (with a 20 percent decline), and schizophrenia (40 percent,
Figure 1). The timing of the decline in earnings differs across conditions. For people with BD
and schizophrenia, which have traditionally been more difficult to diagnose, earnings decline
for four years before the disorder is diagnosed. For people with depression, earnings decline
for only two years preceding a diagnosis.
Earnings recover after the diagnosis, but – with the notable exception of depression –
they never return to pre-diagnosis levels. For people with depression, earnings recover to
almost fully. For people with BD, earnings recover to 90 percent, but for people with
schizophrenia, earnings only reach 40 percent of pre-diagnosis. Part of these differences may
be related to differences in the persistence of these disorders. Depression is less persistent
than BD or schizophrenia. Notably, these estimates may overstate recovery because people
who are extremely sick may leave the labor force. We examine these effects below.
Heterogeneous Effects Across the Distribution of Earnings
Mental health disorders could have heterogeneous effects on earnings in different
parts of the earnings distribution. Re-estimating equation (1) for individuals above and below
the median of earnings reveals that penalties are much larger below the median. Among
people who earn less than the median of $48,632, those with depression earn 29 percent less
and those with BD earn 37 percent less than the population (Table 3, column 3, significant at
1 percent). People with schizophrenia earn a full 72 percent less.
14
Above the median, earnings penalties are small. People with depression earn 2 percent
less, people with BD earn only 6 percent less, and people with schizophrenia earn only 6
percent less (Table 3, column 1, significant at 1 percent). Taken together, these estimates
suggest that mental health disorders may exacerbate inequality in earnings.
People with Mental Health Disorders Are Less Likely to be Top Earners or Executives
In popular accounts, such as the story about Elon Musk above, mental health disorders
- and particularly BD - are often linked with high performance, high pressure executive jobs,
and BD is often called a “CEO’s disease” (Cooper et al. 1988). Population data, however,
show that exposure to a mental health condition lowers a person’s chances of entering the top
percentiles of earnings. People with depression and schizophrenia are 52 and 58 percent less
likely to enter the top decile of earnings (Table 4, column 1, significant at 1 percent,
respectively).
Notably, people with BD face a smaller reduction in their chances of top earnings than
people with other types other mental health disorders. People with BD are 3.0 percentage
points less likely to enter the top 10 percent of earnings, implying a 30 percent lower
probability (Table 4, column 1, significant at 1 percent). Albeit large, this gap is substantially
smaller than the equivalent reduction for people with depression and schizophrenia. The
difference across disorders is consistent with recent findings in experimental psychology,
which suggest that BD increases the emotional rewards of risky gambles (Mason et al. 2014,
Reddy et al. 2011). An elevated preference for risk increase a person’s chances the extreme
ends of the earning distribution – including the top – even as if other aspects of this mental
health condition lower a person’s chance of high earnings.30
Contrary to the view of BD as a “CEO’s disease” (Cooper et al. 1988), people with
BD are 1.1 percentage point less likely to be executives (Table 5, column 3, significant at 1
percent). Compared with a population share of 3.67 percent, this implies that BD is
associated with a 30 percent reduction in the probability of becoming an executive. People
with depression are also less likely to hold executive jobs (1.8 percentage points, and 49
percent less compared with the population). People with schizophrenia are 1.9 percentage
points less likely (52 percent less than the population share, Table 5, column 3, significant at
1 percent).
30
Controlling for family fixed effects reduces these differences. Compared with their healthy siblings, people
with BD are 36 percent less likely to enter the top 10 deciles of earnings, people with depression are 41 percent
less likely, and people with schizophrenia are 45 percent less likely (Table 3, column 2, significant at 1 percent).
15
We also examine the link between mental health disorders and entrepreneurship,
measured by self-employment and executive positions in small and young firms. In a survey
of 242 entrepreneurs and 93 control subjects, nearly half of the entrepreneurs reported that
they were concerned about their mental health, compared with only 24 percent of the control
subject Freeman et al. 2015). We re-examine these correlations for population data on mental
health and alternative measures of entrepreneurship.
These estimates indicate that people with BD are more likely to be self-employed than
the population, even though they are more likely to be self-employed compared with people
who have other mental health disorders. Compared with the population, people with BD are
0.9 percentage points less likely to be self-employed, implying a 12 percent reduction
compared with a 7.2 percent population share of self-employment. By comparison, people
with depression are 12 percent less likely, and people with schizophrenia are not significantly
less likely to be self-employed (Table 5, column 1).
People with BD are more likely than people with other mental health disorders to be
executives in small and young firms, a common indicator for entrepreneurial jobs
(Haltiwanger, Jarmin, and Miranda 2010).31 People with BD are 0.04 percentage points less
likely to be executives in small and young firms. Compared with a population average of 0.23
percent, this implies a 16 percent lower probability (Table 5, column 5, significant at 1
percent). By comparison, people with depression are 46 percent less likely, and people with
schizophrenia are 56 percent less likely.
All of these results are robust to controlling for family fixed effects (Table 5, column
6). Compared with their siblings, people with BD are 10 percent less likely to be employed as
executives in small and young firms, although this estimate is indistinguishable from zero
(Table 5, column 6, p-value equal to 0.26). People with depression are 40 less likely, and
people with schizophrenia are 41 less likely to be executives in small and young firms.
People with Mental Health Disorders Face Much Higher Risks of Low Earnings, Zero
Earnings, and Disability
Compared with the chance of entering the top, mental health disorders are associated
with a much greater risk of descending into the bottom quantiles of earnings. People with BD
31
An alternative indicator is incorporation. Levine and Rubinstein (2017) show that incorporated self-employed
and their firms engage in activities that demand more non-routine cognitive abilities, while the unincorporated
are more likely to perform manual skills. People who become incorporated later also score higher on learning
aptitude tests, exhibit greater self-esteem, and engage in more illicit activities when they are teenagers. Our
sample of incorporated entrepreneurs is too small to repeat their test, but detailed information in the registry data
allows us to build alternative measure for entrepreneurial people.
16
are 12 percentage points more likely to enter the bottom 10 percent of earnings, implying a
120 percent higher risk (Table 4, column 5, significant at 1 percent). Estimates are similar for
depression (with 99 percent) and much larger for schizophrenia (319 percent, Table 4,
column 5, significant at 1 percent).
Moreover, mental health disorders raise the risks of having no earnings at all. People
with depression are 15.3 percentage points more likely have no earnings (Table 2, column 3,
significant at 1 percent). Compared with a 13.4 percent population share of people with zero
earnings, this implies a 1.1 times higher risk. People with BD are 15 percentage points more
likely to have zero earnings, implying a 1.1-fold higher probability. People with
schizophrenia are 45 percentage points more likely to have zero earnings, implying a 3.36
times higher probability (Table 2, column 3, significant at 1 percent). Controlling for family
fixed effects leaves these estimates substantially unchanged (Table 2, column 4, significant at
1 percent).
What drives the large risk of low or zero earnings for people with BD? Survey data in
Kessler et al (2003 and 2004) indicate that BD and depression are associated with 65.5 and
27.2 and excess lost workdays per worker respectively.32 According to estimates by the
World Health Organization (2011), mental illnesses are the leading cause of lost disabilityadjusted life years (DALYs) worldwide, accounting for more than one third of years lost due
to non-communicable diseases. BD itself is ranked as the sixth leading cause of disability
worldwide (Murray and Lopez 1996). Suppes et al (2001) surveyed 253 people with BD and
found that only one third of them worked full-time. Another 9 percent worked part-time
outside the home, and 57 percent of patients with BD reported being unable to work or
working only in sheltered settings.33
To begin our systematic analysis of disability, we first estimate equation (1) with an
indicator for people who receive disability pay as the dependent variable. OLS estimates
show that people with depression are 1.2 times more likely to be on disability (7.4 percentage
points compared with a population average of 5.9 percent). By comparison, BD and
schizophrenia are associated with much larger risks of disability. OLS estimates indicate that
people with BD are roughly 2.7 times more likely to receive disability payments (12.8
percentage points compared with a population average of 5.9 percent, Table 2, column 5,
32
Kessler et al. (2003) use self-reported data in the World Health Organization Health and Work Performance
Questionnaire (HPQ). Projections of their estimates to the US labor force yield estimates of 225.0 million work
days and $36.6 billion salary-equivalent lost productivity per year from depression, and 96.2 million lost
workdays and $14.1 billion salary-equivalent lost productivity per year from BD.
33
See Dean et al. 2004 for a review of existing estimates of the costs of BD.
17
significant at 1 percent). and people with schizophrenia are 7 times more likely (41
percentage points, Table 2, column 5, significant at 1 percent). All results are robust to
controls for family fixed effects (Table 2, column 6).
People with BD are also 19.6 percentage points more likely than the population to
receive any form of welfare pay, including pensions, unemployment insurance, or sick leave
(98 percent more likely compared with an average probability of 19.9 percent, Table 2,
column 7, significant at 1 percent). People with depression are 103 percent more likely to
receive welfare pay, and people with schizophrenia are 2.5 times more likely.
Time-varying estimates show that the probability of disability increases after the
diagnosis (Figure 2, based on equivalent estimates to equation 2). Two years after the
diagnosis, people with depression are 12 percentage points more likely to receive disability
pay compared with the year immediately before the diagnosis. Relative to a population share
of 5.9 percent, this implies a 100 percent increase. People with BD are 20 percentage points
more likely to be on disability and people with schizophrenia are 36 percentage point more
likely. These probabilities continue to grow, albeit at a slower rate, reaching 21 percentage
points for depression ten year after the diagnoses, 27 percentage points for BD, and 42
percentage points for schizophrenia.34
Taken together these estimates suggest that mental health disorders create enormous
costs by dramatically reducing earnings and increasing risks of disability.
IV. EFFECTS OF ACCESS TO TREATMENT
In this section, we exploit a major change in the treatment of bipolar disorder in 1976
to identify the causal effects of access to treatment. For the United States, estimates from the
National Comorbidity Survey (NCS-R, Kessler et al 2003b) indicate that one in three people
with BD remain untreated.35 If treatment improves earnings and reduces the risks of zero
earnings and disability, changes in access to treatment will have major welfare effects.
Access to Treatment Greatly Increases Average Earnings
34
Education is another channel by which mental health may affect a person’s career. We find that people with
depression are 19 percent less likely to complete college, and people with schizophrenia are 44 percent less
likely. Only people with BD are slightly (2 percent) more likely to complete college (Table 2, column 9).
35
Even when people are treated, the quality of treatment is highly uneven. In the NCS-R, more than one third of
all people with BD were treated by mental health professionals who are not psychiatrists (35.4 percent, Kessler
et al 2003b), even though a striking 73 percent in general medical treatment received the wrong drugs
(compared with an also large 43 percent in specialist treatment.
18
Baseline estimates compare earnings penalties for people with BD with and without
to treatment in their 20s, the typical age of onset for BD (Kessler et al. 2005). OLS
regressions estimate:
(3)
ln(earningsict)= α BDi + β BDi x postc + θc + τt + εict
where the dependent variable ln(earningsict) represents the natural logarithm of earnings for
individual i in birth cohort c and year t. The variable postc equals 1 for cohorts born after
1956, who had access to lithium treatment when they turned 20. Under the identifying
assumption that differences in earnings for people with and without BD would have been
comparable for people before and after 1956, the coefficient β1 on the interaction BDi x postc
estimates the benefits of access to treatment. Cohort fixed effects θc control for factors that
may influence outcomes differentially for people who were born in different cohorts.36 We
first estimate these effects separately for people with positive earnings, and then investigate
effects on the probability of zero earnings below.
OLS estimates indicate that access to treatment eliminates one third of the earnings
penalty that is associated with BD. An estimate of 0.095 for BD x post implies that people
with BD who had access to treatment earned almost 12 percent more than other people with
BD (Table 6, column 1, significant at 1 percent).37 Compared with an earnings penalty of 38
percent, this implies a reduction of 32 percent.
Estimates with family fixed effects confirm these results. An estimate of 0.111 for BD
x post indicates that access to treatment closes 33 percent of the 36 percent earnings penalty
from BD (Table 6, column 4, significant at 1 percent).
No Significant Effects of Treatment on Siblings
We also estimate the effects of treatments on siblings, who face an elevated risk of
BD (e.g., Mortensen et al 2003), and may be affected even if they are not diagnosed (Kruger
2006).38 Parents who are resource-constrained may also underinvest in siblings of people
with BD, or they may invest more in siblings if they expect them to carry a disproportionate
36
Perhaps most importantly in our setting, cohort fixed effects control for variation in the stigmatization of
mental health, which can vary over time (Hinshaw 2007). Increasing evidence for genetic predispositions may
mitigate the stigmatization of mental health over time. Despite such evidence, however, attitude surveys indicate
that levels of stigmatization have increased for younger cohorts, at least towards the most serious forms of
mental disorders, such as BD (Link et al 1999, Pheland et al. 2000).
38
Analyses of US data indicate that people with a family history of BD are more likely to be affected by a
milder form of (subthreshold) BD than the population (Judd and Akiskal 2003).
19
share of family responsibilities. These effects are not only interesting in their own right, but
they also matter for our interpretation of results with family fixed effects, which effectively
compare people with BD to healthy siblings.
Consistent with the negative effects of mental health disorders on siblings, OLS
estimates indicate that healthy siblings earn 6.5 percent less than the population (with an
estimate of -0.068 for BD sibling, Table 7, column 1, significant at 1 percent). Access to
treatment has a small negative effect on siblings (with an estimate of -0.032 for BD sibling x
post, Table 7, column 1, significant at 10 percent).
Event Studies Surrounding the Year of Diagnosis
To further investigate the timing of changes in earnings around the diagnosis we
estimate event-study regressions, equivalent to equation (2). These estimates show similar
levels and trends in earnings for people with and without treatment before the diagnosis and
large differences afterwards (Figure 3). For cohorts with and without treatment, earnings
begin to decline 4 years before a diagnosis, and fall by 57 percent in the 5 years before the
person is diagnosed. This pre-diagnosis decline in earnings is consistent with findings on
significant delays in the diagnosis of BD.39
For people with and without access to treatment, earnings decline by 28 percent in the
year of the diagnosis compared with the previous year. Without treatment, earnings continue
to decline for the next three years. After that, earnings remain at a 30-percent lower level
compared with the last year before the diagnosis (Figure 3).
Access to treatment visibly mitigates this earnings penalty, closing nearly two thirds
of the decline in earnings (Figure 3). For people with access to treatment earnings recover
from 28 percent less in year 1 to only 8 percent less 10 years after they diagnosis. These
estimates suggest that access to treatment conveys important benefits for people with BD.
Benefits are Largest in the Bottom Quantiles of Earnings
Cross-sectional correlations in Table 4 suggest that the costs of mental health
disorders fall disproportionately on people with low earnings.40 Consistent with these
findings, the effects of treatment are also much stronger below the median of earnings.
39
Calabrese et al (1996), for example, find that roughly one in five people who enter outpatient treatment for
BD have experienced four or more periods within the prior year.
40
Figure A3 compares the distribution of earnings for people with BD and their healthy counterparts. For people
with BD, the distribution of earnings residuals distribution is bimodal, with a first mode around 0 and a second
mode around $50,000 (Figure A3). By comparison, the distribution of earnings for the healthy population has a
much larger mass and a median around $50,000.
20
Among people who earn less than the median of $48,632, people with BD earn 49 percent
less (BD, Table 8, column 1, significant at 1 percent). Access to lithium eliminates 63 percent
this earnings penalty (with an estimate of 31 percent for BD x post, Table 8, column 1,
significant at 1 percent).
Differences in pre-existing wealth may drive the disproportionate impact of mental
health in the bottom quantiles of earnings. Since pre-existing wealth varies across family,
family (mother) fixed-effects offer a crude way to control for such differences. Controlling
for family fixed effects leaves the estimated change unchanged at 51 percent (Table 8,
column 2, significant at 1 percent). Access to treatment eliminates, however, a larger 84
percent of the earnings gap between people with BD and their healthy siblings (eliminating
43 percentage points of a 51 percent gap, Table 8, column 2, significant at 1 percent).
Notably, there is no evidence for positive treatment effects for people who are above
the median of earnings. In the sample of people who earn more than the median, people with
BD do not earn significantly less (Table 8, column 3). Access to lithium has a small negative
effect on this gap (Table 8, column 3). Estimates with controls for family fixed imply that
people with BD earn 4.1 less than their siblings. Access to lithium also has no noticeable
effect on this difference (Table 8, column 4).
Access to Treatment Improves Chance to Become Top Earners and Executives
Compared with the population, people with BD are 2.7 percentage points less likely to
enter the top 10 percent of earnings, or 27 percent less likely compared with an average
probability of 0.10 (Table 9, column 1, significant at 1 percent). Access to lithium has a small
and statistically insignificant effect on this probability (BD x post, Table 9, column 1).
Controlling for family fixed effects, however, increases the size of these estimates and yields
positive effects of treatment. Compared with their siblings, people with BD are 52 percent
less likely to enter the top 10 percent of earnings. Access to treatment increases this
probability by 21 percent (2.1 percentage points compared with an average probability of
0.10, Table 9, column 2, significant at 1 percent).41
Next, we perform a series of alternative tests to check whether BD is a CEO’s disease.
First, we re-estimate equation (1) for the probability of executive employment. OLS
estimates indicate that people with BD are 31 percent less likely to be executives (1.1
41
Treatment is also associated with a 16 percent increase in the probability of entering the top 25 percent of
earnings compared with siblings (with an estimate of BD * post equal to 0.040, Table 9, column 4, significant at
1 percent).
21
percentage points, Table 10, column 1, compared with an average probability of 0.0367).
Access to lithium has a small and insignificant effect on this gap (with an estimate of BD x
post equal to 0.037, Table 10, column 1). Controlling for family fixed effects increases the
size of these estimates. Compared with their siblings, people with BD are 55 percent less
likely to become executives (2.0 percentage points, Table 10, column 2, compared with an
average probability of 0.0368). Access to lithium reduces this gap by 60 percent (or 1.2
percentage points, Table 10, column 2, significant at 10 percent).
These estimates indicate a more complex relationship between BD and executive
employment than is suggested by the label of a “CEO’s disease.” Without treatment, people
with BD are much less likely to become executives. Controlling for a person’s family
background makes this relationship more negative, suggesting that physical and social capital
at the family level can help people with BD to reach executive jobs. Access to treatment
greatly increases a person’s chances of becoming an executive controlling for a person’s
family background but has no significant effect without family-level controls, further
confirming that a person’s family background mitigates the effects of mental health on
executives.
We also estimate investigate effects on entrepreneurship, measured by executive roles
in start-ups (with less than 5 years old and fewer than 50 employees, following Haltiwanger,
Jarmin and Miranda 2011). Interviews with start-ups indicate that people who join start-ups
“value the autonomy, creativity, and growth they experience in their jobs” (Bussgang 2017).
All of these features may be linked to some elements of BD by giving people with BD greater
freedom to work. At least on the surface, people with BD appear to share traits of
entrepreneurs. Levine and Rubinstein (2017) find that incorporated US entrepreneurs (born
between 1940 and 1970) were more likely to have engaged in risky and illicit behavior as
young adults. Some of these entrepreneurs may have been bipolar (and have received
treatment), but these effects are impossible to evaluate with US data. Tendencies towards
risky and illicit behavior are also associated with BD (e.g., Swann et al. 2004).42
Regressions with family fixed effects indicate that people with BD are 1.25 times less
likely to become an executive in a start-up than their siblings. Access to lithium almost
42
Swann et al 2004 find that impulsivity, or the tendency to pursue rewards without awareness of negative
consequences, becomes elevated in people with mania. Cooper et al (1988) show that entrepreneurs
overestimate their firm’s probability of survival. Landier and Thesmar (2008) find that entrepreneurs
overestimate the employment expansion and sales growth of their firms. De Meza and Southey (1996) argue
that individuals who start new small businesses use high collaterals and bank loans instead of equity finance
because they are overly optimistic. Galasso and Simcoe (2011) find that overconfident CEOs are more
innovative, measured by the rate at which CEOs exercise stock options.
22
eliminates this difference (Table 10, column 4, significant at 1 percent).43 Lastly, bipolar
people are 40 percent less likely to be in an executive position in large firms more than 5
years old, compared with the rest of the population. Access to lithium reduces this gap to 24
percent (Table 10, column 5, p-value equal to 0.48). Compared with their siblings, bipolar
individuals are 71 percent less likely to hold managerial positions in large firms. Access to
lithium eliminates 58 percent of this gap.
Access to Treatment Greatly Reduces Risks of Low or Zero Earnings
Most strikingly, people with BD are 1.3 times more likely to decline into the bottom
10th percentile of earnings (13 percentage points compared with an average of 0.1, Table 9,
column 5, significant at 1 percent). Access to lithium reduces this probability by 17 percent
(1.7 percentage points for BD x post, Table 9, column 5, significant at 1 percent). Controlling
for family fixed effects further increases the size of these estimates (Table 9, column 6,
significant at 1 percent).
We also estimate the effects of BD and treatments on a person’s risk of having no
earnings at all:
(4)
P(zeroict)= α BDi + β BDi x postc + γ Zit + θc + τt + εict
where zeroict equals 1 if person i from cohort c has zero earnings in year t.
OLS estimates imply that people with BD are 1.5 times more likely than the
population person to have no earnings at all (19.6 percentage points compared with a
population share of 0.134, Table 11, column 1, significant at 1 percent). Access to treatment
removes 33 percent of a person’s risk of zero earnings: With treatment, people with BD are
only 98 percent more likely than the population to have zero earnings (with an estimate of 6.5 percentage points, Table 11, column 1, significant at 1 percent). Estimates are robust to
controlling for family fixed effects: People with BD are 19.8 percentage points more likely
than their siblings to have no earnings. Access to lithium reduces this risk by 7.3 percentage
points (Table 11, column 2).
Event study estimates imply that risks of zero earnings increase by nearly 15
percentage points in the 10 years leading up to the diagnosis, compared with a population risk
of 14 percent, plus an additional 10 percent in the two years after the diagnosis (Figure 4).
After that, risks of zero earnings continue to increase for people without access to treatment.
43
Compared with the population, estimates for BD and BD x post are not statistically significant (Table 10,
column 3).
23
In the 10 years after the diagnosis, people without access to treatment face a 18-percentage
points increase in the risk of zero earnings, implying a 1.3 fold increase, compared with the
last year before the diagnosis.
Access to treatment greatly reduces the risk of zero earnings. People with access to
treatment face only a 9-percentage points additional risks of zero earnings in the year after
the diagnosis compared with the year before (66 percent, Figure 4).
Access to Treatment Greatly Reduces the Risks of Disability
To investigate effects on disability, we first estimate equation (1) as a linear
probability regression for the probability that a person receives disability payments. OLS
estimates show that people with BD are almost 4 times more likely to be on disability than
the average person in the Danish labor force (21.8 percentage points, Table 11, column 3,
significant at 1 percent, compared with an average probability of being on disability of
0.059).
Importantly, we find that access to treatment closes 59 percent of this gap (with an
estimate of BD x post equal to 0.128, Table 11, column 3, significant at 1 percent). Compared
with their siblings, people with BD are nearly 5 times more likely to receive disability pay
(21.4 percentage points, Table 11, column 4, significant at 1 percent, compared with an
average probability of disability of 0.046 for people with at least one sibling). Access to
treatment closes 57 percent of this gap (with an estimate of 0.122 for BD x post compared
with 0.214 for BD, Table 11, column 4, significant at 1 percent).
Event study estimates confirm the dramatic decline in disability with access to
treatment. In years 4 and 3 before the diagnosis, for example, people with BD are 3 and 2
percentage points less likely to be on disability relative to the year before the diagnosis
(Figure 5).44 After the diagnosis, the risk of disability doubles. Four years after the diagnosis,
people with BD are 21 percentage points more likely to receive disability pay (Figure 5).
Access to treatment eliminates half of the excess risk of disability for people with BD.
Ten years after the initial diagnosis, people with BD and access to treatment are 7 percentage
points less likely to be on disability compared with people with BD and access to treatment
(Figure 5).
V. TREATMENT EFFECTS ACROSS BIRTH COHORTS
stead of earnings) as an outcome variable.
24
Baseline estimates calculate average effects of treatments for people who had access
to lithium treatment when they turned 20. This approach yields a precise estimate if treatment
became available immediately to everyone after 1976. It may, however, take several years for
a new drug to reach all patients (Agha and Molitor 2017, Dickstein, King, and Saxell 2017).45
Moreover, it is possible that lithium was used before it was approved. Errors of both types
will lead the baseline estimates to understate the benefits of treatment.
Here, we estimate cohort-specific effects, allowing people who were older than 20
years to benefit from treatment. Specifically, we estimate β separately for each cohort
between 1946 and 1976, allowing it to be different from zero before 1956.
(5) ln(earningsict)= α BDi + Σc βc BDi x θc + γ Zit + δf + θc + τt + εict
where the birth year 1956 is the omitted category (i.e. θ1956 = 0).
These estimates corroborate the approach of our baseline regressions. Cohort-specific
estimates show no positive effects of treatment for cohorts before 1956, who would not have
had access to lithium when they turned 20. For people born before 1956 all estimates are
negative and insignificant, ranging from -0.36 for 1946 (with a p-value of 0.32) to 0.22 for
1950 (p-value 0.22).
Cohort-specific estimates first become positive for people born in 1962, with an
estimate of 0.14 and an implied 14 percent increase in earnings (exp(0.14)-1, significant at 10
percent, Figure 6). This six-year delay after access to treatment is consistent with estimated
delays in the diffusion of drugs (e.g. Agha and Molitor 2017). Estimates further increase to
0.24 for people born in 1972 (significant at 1 percent) and 0.31 for people born in 1976
(significant at 1 percent, Figure 6), implying a 27 and 36 percent increase, respectively.
People with Access in their Early 20s have Much Lower Risks of Zero Earnings
Cohort-specific estimates confirm that there was no measurable effect of “treatment”
for people who did not have access to treatment when they reached adulthood. For people
with BD who were born before 1956 the benefits of “treatment” are close to zero and never
statistically significant (Figure 7).
Treatments first become statistically significant for cohorts born in 1957-58, with a 4
percentage points (-0.04) decline in the probability of zero earnings (significant at 10
percent). Estimates decline continuously, reaching -0.09 for people born in 1966 (significant
45
Agha and Molitor (2017) show that, within the first four years after the introduction of a new cancer drug,
patients who live near the lead investigator’s region are substantially more likely to be treated with that drug.
25
at 1 percent) and -0.11 for people born in 1974 (significant at 1 percent, Figure 7). Compared
with a population share of 0.137, these estimates imply a 67 and 82 percent reduction in the
risks of zero earnings. Younger people, who had access to lithium for a larger share of their
professional lives, are substantially more likely to have positive earnings.
They are Also Much Less Likely to Be on Disability
Cohort-varying estimates indicate no significant differences in the probability of
disability for people with BD in cohorts born before 1956 (Figure 8, relative to cohorts born
in 1956). After 1956, estimates become significantly negative: they are equal to -0.04 for
1958 (significant at 10 percent) and reach -0.13 for the 1968 cohort (significant at 1 percent)
and -0.19 for 1974 (significant at 1 percent, Figure 8). Compared with an average probability
of 0.059, this correspond to a 68, 220, and 322 percent lower probability, respectively.
VI. ANALYSES OF SEVERITY
In this final section of the analysis we examine heterogeneous effects on people with
more or less severe forms of BD. First, we measure intensity by a person’s number of
diagnoses with BD. On average, BD individuals experience 2.4 diagnoses between 1995 and
2015, with a median of 2 episodes. We estimate the following regression:
(6) ln(earningsict)= α1 BDi + β1 BDi x postc + α2 # BD episodesi + β2 # BD episodesi x postc
+ γ Zit + θc + τt + εict
where # BD episodesi is the number of BD episodes experienced by individual i.
OLS estimates of this regression imply that even people with just one single diagnosis
of BD have 44 percent lower earnings compared with the population (calculated as the sum
of the exponents of the estimates for BD and # BD episodes in Table 12, column 1,
significant at 1 percent.)
Each additional episode is associated with an additional 22 percent lower earnings.
The benefits of access to treatment, however, are also larger for individuals who experience
more episodes. For individuals with only one diagnosis, the gap in earnings is reduced by 25
percent with access to treatment (exp(0.008) -1+ exp(0.098)-1/0.438, Table 12, column 1),
and the benefit of treatment increases by 10 percentage points with each additional episode.
Estimates which compare individuals with their siblings indicate similar wage gaps and
smaller benefits from treatment associated with more episodes (Table 12, column 2).
26
People with more frequent episodes are also more likely to have zero earnings and
benefit more from treatment. People with a single diagnosis of BD are 72 percent more likely
to earn nothing (with an estimate of 0.096 for BD and compared with a 13.4 percent
population share of zero earning, Table 12, column 3, significant at 1 percent). Access to
treatment eliminates 10 percent of this penalty (BD x post is -0.010, Table 12, column 3, pvalue equal to 0.2). Each additional diagnosis of BD is associated with a 7.1 percentage point
increase in the probability of zero earnings (with an estimate of 0.071 for # BD episodes,
Table 12, column 3, significant at 1 percent). Access to treatment eliminates more than half
of this penalty, with an estimate of 4.1 percentage for # BD episodes x post (Table 13,
column 3, significant at 1 percent). For the median person with BD, who receives 2 diagnoses
of BD, these estimates imply a 23.8 percentage point increase in the risk of zero earnings;
access to treatment eliminates 5.1 percentage points of this increased risk.
VI. ADDITIONAL ROBUSTNESS CHECKS
In the United States, lithium was approved in 1974, two years earlier than in
Denmark. If Danish people with BD were able to source lithium from the United States, our
main specifications mis-measure the timing of access to treatment. To address this issue, we
re-estimate the main specifications, starting access to treatment in 1974. These estimates with
confirm the main specifications: People with BD earn 44 percent less than the population
(Table 13, column 1, significant at 1 percent), compared with 43 percent in the main
specifications (Table 6, column 1). Access to treatment eliminates 31 percent of the earnings
penalty from BD (from 44 percent to 30 percent, BD x post, Table 13, column 1).
Relative to healthy siblings, people with BD earn 51 percent less (Table 13, column 2,
significant at 1 percent), compared with 43 percent less in the main specifications (Table 6,
column 4). With access to treatment more than half of this penalty disappears (with a
reduction from 51 percent to 18 percent, implied by BD x post, Table 13, column 2),
compared with a 27 percent reduction in the main specifications (Table 6, column 4).
People with BD are also 149 percent more likely to have zero earnings compared with
the population (Table 13, column 3, significant at 1 percent), compared with 146 percent in
the main specifications (Table 11, column 1). Access to treatments reduces the risk of zero
earnings by 32 percent (Table 13, column 3, significant at 1 percent), compared with 33
percent in the main specifications.
Finally, people with BD are 3.8 times more likely to receive disability pay compared
with the population (Table 13, column 5, significant at 1 percent), compared with 3.7 times
27
percent in the main specifications. Access to treatment in 1974 eliminates 56 percent of this
risk, compared with 59 percent in the main specifications.
VII. CONCLUSIONS
This paper has used registry data on mental health diagnoses, earnings, and disability
to investigate the career effects of mental health. Population data indicate that mental health
disorders carry enormous social costs, with earnings penalties that range from 35 percent for
a person with depression to 74 percent for a person with schizophrenia. Risks of zero earning
range from 110 percent for depression and BD to 336 percent for schizophrenia. Risks of
disability range from 120 percent for depression and 270 percent for BD to 700 percent for
schizophrenia.
The approval of lithium as a maintenance treatment for BD in 1976 makes it possible
to estimate the effects of major change in access to treatments. Baseline difference-indifferences estimates indicate that access to lithium closed one-third percent of the earnings
gap from BD compared with the population and compared with siblings. Access to treatment
also greatly reduces the risks of zero earnings, and of declining in the bottom quantiles of
earnings. Moreover, access to treatment eliminates 59 percent of the excess risk of disability
compared with the population and 57 percent compared with siblings. These results imply
that policies which improve access to treatments for mental health disorders could create
large economic and social benefits by increasing earnings, encouraging labor force
participation, and reducing the risk of disability.
Notably, the gains from access are concentrated at the lower end of the earnings
distribution, which suggests important distributional effects of treatments for mental health
disorder. Denmark offers universal health care, granting better access to drugs to people in
the lower quantiles of the earnings distribution. In countries without universal healthcare,
such as the United States, variation in access to treatment across the earnings distribution
may further exacerbate the distributional effects on mental health.
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World Health Organization. 2011 Global status report on non-communicable diseases
2010. Geneva: WHO.
35
FIGURE 1– EVENT STUDY ON EARNING AROUND THE DIAGNOSIS
DEPRESSION, BD, AND SCHIZOPHRENIA
Note: Point estimates and 95 percent confidence of the parameter d in equation log(earningsict)=
∑10k = -10 dk Ci I(t-Y(C)i = k) +β1 BDi + β2 Depressioni + β3 Schizophreniai +γ3 Zit + θc + τt + εict
where the dependent variable is the natural logarithm of earnings, Ci is an indicator for either
BD, Depression, or Schizophrenia, Y(C)i indicates the year when individual i is diagnosed with
condition C, and I() is an indicator function. The variable Zit is a vector of controls, including
the natural logarithm of the unemployment rate, an indicator for being enrolled in education, and
an indicator for part-time work; θc are cohort fixed effects, and τt are year fixed-effects. Standard
errors are clustered at the individual level. The sample is restricted to individuals between 20 and
60 years of age, born between 1946 and 1976, and with positive earnings.
FIGURE 2– EVENT STUDY ON DISABILITY AROUND THE DIAGNOSIS
BD, SCHIZOPHRENIA AND DEPRESSION
Note: Point estimates and 95 percent confidence of the parameter d in equation Disabilityict=∑10k
= -10 dk Ci I(t-Y(C)i = k) +β1 BDi + β2 Depressioni + β3 Schizophreniai +γ3 Zit + θc + τt + εict
where the dependent variable is an indicator for disability payment receipts, Ci is an indicator for
either BD, Depression, or Schizophrenia, Y(C)i indicates the year when individual i is diagnosed
with condition C, and I() is an indicator function. The variable Zit is a vector of controls,
including the natural logarithm of the unemployment rate, an indicator for being enrolled in
education, and an indicator for part-time work; θc are cohort fixed effects, and τt are year fixedeffects. Standard errors are clustered at the individual level. The sample is restricted to
individuals between 20 and 60 years of age, born between 1946 and 1976.
FIGURE 3– EVENT STUDY ON EARNINGS
PEOPLE WITH BD WITH AND WITHOUT ACCESS TO TREATMENT
Note: Point estimates and 95 percent confidence of the parameter d in equation log(earningsict)=
∑10k = -10 ds BDi I(t-Y(BD)i = k) + β2 Depressioni + β3 Schizophreniai + γ Zit + θc + τt + εict, where
the dependent variable is the natural logarithm of earnings, BD equals 1 for individuals who have
been diagnosed with this condition at least once between 1995 and 2015, Y(BD)i is the year of
the diagnosis, and I() is an indicator function. The variable Zit is a vector of controls, including
the natural logarithm of the unemployment rate, an indicator for being enrolled in education, and
an indicator for part-time work; θc are cohort fixed effects, and τt are year fixed-effects. Standard
errors are clustered at the individual level. Estimates are shown separately for individuals born
before and after 1956. The sample is restricted to individuals between 20 and 60 years of age,
born between 1946 and 1976, and with positive earnings.
FIGURE 4– EVENT STUDY ON ZERO EARNINGS
PEOPLE WITH BD WITH AND WITHOUT ACCESS TO LITHIUM
Note: Point estimates and 95 percent confidence of the parameter d in equation
P(earningsict=0)= ∑10k = -10 ds BDi I(t-Y(BD)i = k) + β2 Depressioni + β3 Schizophreniai + γ Zit +
θc + τt + εict, where the dependent variable equals 1 if the individuals receives zero earnings in
year t, BD equals 1 for individuals who have been diagnosed with this condition at least once
between 1995 and 2015, Y(BD)i is the year of the diagnosis, and I() is an indicator function. The
variable Zit is a vector of controls, including the natural logarithm of the unemployment rate, an
indicator for being enrolled in education, and an indicator for part-time work; θc are cohort fixed
effects, and τt are year fixed-effects. Standard errors are clustered at the individual level.
Estimates are shown separately for individuals born before and after 1956. The sample is
restricted to individuals between 20 and 60 years of age, born between 1946 and 1976.
FIGURE 5– EVENT STUDY ON DISABILITY
PEOPLE WITH BD WITH AND WITHOUT ACCESS TO LITHIUM
Note: Point estimates and 95 percent confidence of the parameter d in equation
P(disabilityict=0)= ∑10k = -10 ds BDi I(t-Y(BD)i = k) + β2 Depressioni + β3 Schizophreniai + γ Zit +
θc + τt + εict, where the dependent variable equals 1for individuals on in year t, BD equals 1 for
individuals who have been diagnosed with this condition at least once between 1995 and 2015,
Y(BD)i is the year of the diagnosis, and I() is an indicator function. The variable Zit is a vector of
controls, including the natural logarithm of the unemployment rate, an indicator for being
enrolled in education, and an indicator for part-time work; θc are cohort fixed effects, and τt are
year fixed-effects. Standard errors are clustered at the individual level. Estimates are shown
separately for individuals born before and after 1956. The sample is restricted to individuals
between 20 and 60 years of age, born between 1946 and 1976.
FIGURE 6– COHORT-SPECIFIC EFFECTS OF ACCESS TO LITHIUM ON EARNINGS
Note: Point estimates and 95 percent confidence intervas of the parameter β1c in the equation
ln(earningsict) = α1 BDi + Σc β1c BDi x θc + γ1 Depressioni + γ2 Schizophreniai + γ3 Zit + δf + θc
+ τt + εict, where ln(earningsict) is the natural logarithm of earnings for individual i from in
cohort c in year t. The variables BD, Depression, Schizophrenia equal 1 for individuals who have
been diagnosed with these conditions at least once between 1995 and 2015. The variable Zit is a
vector of controls, including the natural logarithm of the unemployment rate, an indicator for
being enrolled in education, and an indicator for part-time work; θc are cohort fixed effects, δf
are family fixed effects, and τt are year fixed-effects. Standard errors are clustered at the
individual level. The sample is restricted to individuals between 20 and 60 years of age, born
between 1946 and 1976, and with positive earnings.
FIGURE 7– COHORT-SPECIFIC EFFECTS OF ACCESS TO LITHIUM ON P(ZERO EARNINGS)
Note: Point estimates and 95 percent confidence intervas of the parameter β1c in the equation
P(earningsict=0)
= α1 BDi + Σc β1c BDi x θc + γ1 Depressioni + γ2 Schizophreniai + γ3 Zit +
δf + θc + τt + εict, where P(earningsict=0) equals 1 for individuals with zero earnings in year t.
The variables BD, Depression, Schizophrenia equal 1 for individuals who have been diagnosed
with these conditions at least once between 1995 and 2015. The variable Zit is a vector of
controls, including the natural logarithm of the unemployment rate, an indicator for being
enrolled in education, and an indicator for part-time work; θc are cohort fixed effects, δf are
family fixed effects, and τt are year fixed-effects. Standard errors are clustered at the individual
level. The sample is restricted to individuals between 20 and 60 years of age, born between 1946
and 1976.
FIGURE 8– COHORT-SPECIFIC EFFECTS OF ACCESS TO LITHIUM ON P(DISABILITY)
Note: Point estimates and 95 percent confidence intervas of the parameter β1c in the equation
P(disabilityict) = α1 BDi + Σc β1c BDi x θc + γ1 Depressioni + γ2 Schizophreniai + γ3 Zit + δf + θc
+ τt + εict, where P(disabilityict) equals 1 for individuals on disability in year t. The variables BD,
Depression, Schizophrenia equal 1 for individuals who have been diagnosed with these
conditions at least once between 1995 and 2015. The variable Zit is a vector of controls, including
the natural logarithm of the unemployment rate, an indicator for being enrolled in education, and
an indicator for part-time work; θc are cohort fixed effects, δf are family fixed effects, and τt are
year fixed-effects. Standard errors are clustered at the individual level. The sample is restricted to
individuals between 20 and 60 years of age, born between 1946 and 1976.
TABLE 1 – COUNT OF PEOPLE WITH DEPRESSION, BIPOLAR DISORDER, AND SCHIZOPHRENIA
All
pre-1956
post-1956
Executives
69,966
post-1956
Executives in small/young firms
9,540
post-1956
Self-employed
pre-1956
post-1956
Receiving disability pay (average per year)
pre-1956
post-1956
Average earnings ($)
pre-1956
post-1956
All
2,692,479
877,265
1,815,214
234,570
69,966
164,604
37,963
9,540
28,423
419,556
129,184
290,372
150,261
70,311
79,950
52,307
(83,476)
54,180
(140,099)
51,583
(45,499)
Depression
97,932
27,121
70,811
3,425
1,094
2,331
565
147
418
13,748
3,535
10,213
16,981
6,244
10,734
37,643
(33,599)
42,269
(41,023)
36,292
(30,969)
BD
22,694
7,705
14,989
701
227
474
137
34
103
3,359
1,012
2,347
6,026
2,537
3,489
35,359
(35,319)
38,076
(41,386)
34,411
(32,887)
Schizophrenia
41,813
12,096
29,717
343
89
254
52
13
39
3,345
716
2,629
19,327
5,952
13,375
24,661
(27,826)
26,041
(27,772)
24,317
(27,829)
Note: Counts of observations for individuals aged 20-60 born in cohorts 1946-1976 in Denmark between 1995 and 2015, and average earnings
measured in 2015 US dollars ($). The variables BD, Depression, and Schizophrenia equal 1 for individuals who have ever been diagnosed with these
pathologies at least once between 1995 and 2015. Diagnoses data are available for calendar years 1995-2015.
TABLE 2 - OLS –– MENTAL HEALTH CONDITIONS, CAREER, AND EDUCATIONAL OUTCOMES
Log(Earnings)
(1)
(2)
BD/Mania
Depression
Schizophrenia
Cohort FE
Year FE
Family FE
Mean of Dep.
Var.
R-squared
N
P(Earnings = 0)
(3)
(4)
P(Disability)
(5)
(6)
P(Welfare)
(7)
(8)
P(College)
(9)
(10)
-0.478***
(0.009)
-0.438***
(0.003)
-1.354***
(0.011)
-0.446***
(0.010)
-0.370***
(0.004)
-1.328***
(0.012)
0.150***
(0.002)
0.153***
(0.001)
0.447***
(0.002)
0.133***
(0.003)
0.106***
(0.001)
0.388***
(0.002)
0.128***
(0.002)
0.074***
(0.001)
0.411***
(0.002)
0.105***
(0.002)
0.048***
(0.001)
0.401***
(0.002)
0.196***
(0.002)
0.205***
(0.001)
0.502***
(0.002)
0.180***
(0.003)
0.154***
(0.001)
0.440***
(0.002)
0.007**
(0.003)
-0.055***
(0.001)
-0.125***
(0.002)
-0.021***
(0.003)
-0.025***
(0.002)
-0.133***
(0.002)
Yes
Yes
No
--
Yes
Yes
Yes
--
Yes
Yes
No
.134
Yes
Yes
Yes
.105
Yes
Yes
No
.059
Yes
Yes
Yes
.047
Yes
Yes
No
.199
Yes
Yes
Yes
.170
Yes
Yes
No
.284
Yes
Yes
Yes
.293
0.045
0.306
0.048
0.342
0.092
0.424
0.051
0.325
0.012
0.596
41,619,160 31,404,955 48,071,128 35,077,362 48,071,128 35,077,362 48,071,128 35,077,362 47,028,679 34,720,113
Standard errors in parentheses are clustered at the individual level.
Note: The dependent variable the natural logarithm of earnings (columns 1-2), an indicator for individuals having zero earnings (columns 3-4),
receiving disability benefits (columns 5-6), receiving any welfare payments (column 7-8), and having at least a college degree (column 9-10).
Earnings are measured in nominal DKK and are the sum of all wages and income from self-employment. The variables BD, Depression,
Schizophrenia equal 1 for individuals who have been diagnosed with these conditions at least once between 1995 and 2015. Diagnoses data are
available for calendar years 1995-2015. All regressions include cohort and year fixed effects; columns 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10 include family fixed
effects. The sample is restricted to individuals aged 20-60 born in cohorts 1946-1975; columns 1 and 2 refer to individuals with positive
earnings.
TABLE 3 – OLS ESTIMATES: MENTAL HEALTH DISORDER AND EARNINGS –
ABOVE AND BELOW MEDIAN
Above Median
(1)
Below Median
(2)
(3)
(4)
BD
-0.018***
-0.032***
-0.470***
-0.389***
(0.004)
(0.005)
(0.010)
(0.012)
Depression
-0.063***
-0.055***
-0.346***
-0.305***
(0.001)
(0.002)
(0.004)
(0.005)
Schizophrenia
-0.060***
-0.040***
-1.279***
-1.287***
(0.004)
(0.005)
(0.011)
(0.013)
Family FE
No
Yes
No
Yes
Cohort FE
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Year FE
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
R-squared
0.080
0.558
0.037
0.290
N
20,809,496
15,992,414
20,809,664
15,412,541
Standard errors in parentheses are clustered at the individual level.
*** p<0.01, ** p<0.05, * p<0.1
Note: The dependent variable measures the earnings of an individual i in year t, separately for
individuals with earnings above the median (columns 1-2) and below the median (columns 34) of earnings. The variables BD, Depression, Schizophrenia equal 1 for individuals who
have been diagnosed with these conditions at least once between 1995 and 2015. Diagnoses
data are available for calendar years 1995-2015.Diagnoses data are available for calendar
years 1995-2015. All regressions include cohort and year fixed effects; columns 2 and 4
include family fixed effects. The sample is restricted to individuals with positive earnings
aged 20-60 and born in cohorts 1946-1975.
TABLE 4 – OLS. MENTAL HEALTH DISORDERS AND THE PROBABILITY OF EXTREME EARNINGS
Top 10%
(1)
BD
Depression
Schizophrenia
Family FE
Cohort FE
Year FE
Mean of Dep. Var.
R-squared
N
Top 25%
(2)
(3)
(4)
Bottom 10%
(5)
(6)
Bottom 25%
(7)
(8)
-0.030***
-0.033***
-0.070***
-0.077***
0.120***
0.111***
0.152***
(0.001)
(0.002)
(0.002)
(0.003)
(0.002)
(0.002)
(0.003)
-0.052***
-0.041***
-0.112***
-0.091***
0.099***
0.086***
0.161***
(0.001)
(0.001)
(0.001)
(0.001)
(0.001)
(0.001)
(0.001)
-0.058***
-0.044***
-0.137***
-0.111***
0.319***
0.309***
0.333***
(0.001)
(0.002)
(0.001)
(0.002)
(0.003)
(0.003)
(0.003)
No
Yes
No
Yes
No
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
.10
.10
.25
.25
.10
.10
.25
0.009
0.373
0.014
0.381
0.024
0.210
0.030
41,619,160
31,404,950
41,619,160
31,404,950
41,619,160
31,404,950
41,619,160
Standard errors in parentheses are clustered at the individual level. *** p<0.01, ** p<0.05, * p<0.1
0.146***
(0.003)
0.141***
(0.001)
0.303***
(0.003)
Yes
Yes
Yes
.25
0.277
31,404,950
Note: The dependent variable equals 1 for individuals with earnings in the top 10 percent (columns 1-2), top 25 percent (columns 3-4), bottom
10 percent (columns 6-7), and bottom 25 percent (columns 7-8) of the earnings distribution. The variables BD, Depression, Schizophrenia equal
1 for individuals who have been diagnosed with these conditions at least once between 1995 and 2015. Diagnoses data are available for calendar
years 1995-2015. All regressions include cohort and year fixed effects; columns 2, 4, 6, and 8 include family fixed effects. Data include all
people with positive earnings aged 20-60 and born in cohorts 1946-1975.
TABLE 5 – OLS. MENTAL HEALTH DISORDERS AND THE PROBABILITY OF BEING SELF-EMPLOYED OR AN EXECUTIVE
Self-employed
Executive
All firms
(1)
BD
Depression
Schizophrenia
Family FE
Cohort
Year FE
Mean of Dep. Var.
R-squared
N
(2)
(3)
(4)
0.882***
0.438**
-1.106***
-0.938***
(0.169)
(0.212)
(0.078)
(0.121)
-0.890***
-0.731***
-1.802***
-1.546***
(0.070)
(0.091)
(0.036)
(0.056)
-0.213
-0.612***
-1.900***
-1.249***
(0.145)
(0.187)
(0.053)
(0.100)
No
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
7.187
6.577
3.669
3.676
0.005
0.355
0.008
0.279
40,414,954
30,593,590
35,373,502
27,076,046
Standard errors in parentheses are clustered at the individual level.
Small and young firms
(5)
(6)
-0.037**
(0.014)
-0.106***
(0.006)
-0.129***
(0.010)
No
Yes
Yes
.23
0.001
35,373,502
-0.025
(0.021)
-0.099***
(0.010)
-0.100***
(0.018)
Yes
Yes
Yes
.246
0.103
27,076,046
Note: The dependent variable is an indicator (multiplied by 100) for self-employed individuals (columns 1-2), individuals holding top
managements positions, including CEOs, in all firms (column 3-4), and in small/young firms, defined as those having less than 50 employees
and less than 5 years of age (column 5-6). The variables BD, Depression, Schizophrenia equal 1 for individuals who have been diagnosed with
these conditions at least once between 1995 and 2015. Diagnoses data are available for calendar years 1995-2015. All regressions include cohort
and year fixed effects; columns 2, 4, and 6 include family fixed effects. The sample is restricted to individuals aged 20-60 and born in cohorts
1946-1975.
TABLE 6 - OLS, DEPENDENT VARIABLE IS LN(EARNINGS)
All
(1)
BD
BD x post
Controls
Cohort FE
Year FE
Family FE
R-squared
N
Men
(2)
Women
(3)
All
(4)
Men
(5)
Women
(6)
-0.560***
-0.556***
-0.577***
-0.662***
-0.562***
-0.653***
(0.019)
(0.027)
(0.026)
(0.034)
(0.054)
(0.064)
0.112***
0.111***
0.142***
0.240***
0.171**
0.239***
(0.021)
(0.031)
(0.028)
(0.036)
(0.057)
(0.066)
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
No
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
0.045
0.045
0.050
0.306
0.389
0.354
41,619,160
21,541,180
20,077,980
31,404,955
16,638,424
14,766,531
Standard errors in parentheses are clustered at the individual level. *** p<0.01, ** p<0.05, * p<0.1
Note: The dependent variable is the natural logarithm of earnings, defined as the sum of all wages and income from self-employment. The
variable BD equals 1 for individuals who have been diagnosed with this condition at least once between 1995 and 2015. Post equals 1 for
individuals who were born after 1956, and turned 20 after lithium, the main treatment for bipolar disorder, became available in Denmark in
1976. Controls include indicators for having received at least one diagnosis of Depression and Schizophrenia, the natural logarithm of the
unemployment rate, an indicator for being enrolled in education, and an indicator for part-time work. Diagnoses data are available for calendar
years 1995-2015. All regressions include cohort and year fixed effects; columns 4-6 include family fixed effects. The sample is restricted to
individuals aged 20-60 born in cohorts 1946-1975, with positive earnings.
TABLE 7 - OLS, DEPENDENT VARIABLE IS LN(EARNINGS), P(EARNINGS = 0), P(DISABILITY)
Log(earnings)
P(earnings = 0)
P(disability)
(1)
(2)
(3)
BD
-0.563***
0.187***
0.208***
(0.031)
(0.008)
(0.007)
BD x post
0.109***
-0.050***
-0.117***
(0.032)
(0.008)
(0.007)
BD sibling
-0.067***
0.022***
0.022***
(0.017)
(0.006)
(0.005)
BD sibling in post cohort
-0.032*
0.012*
-0.005
(0.018)
(0.006)
(0.005)
Controls
Yes
Yes
Yes
Cohort
Yes
Yes
Yes
Year FE
Yes
Yes
Yes
Family FE
No
No
No
Mean of Dep. Var.
-.105
.047
R-squared
0.063
0.055
0.101
N
31,404,955
35,077,362
35,077,362
Standard errors in parentheses are clustered at the individual level. *** p<0.01, ** p<0.05, *
p<0.1
Note: The dependent variable is the natural logarithm of earnings, defined as are the sum of
all wages and income from self-employment (column 1), an indicator for zero earnings
(column 2), and an indicator for being on disability (column 3). The variable BD equals 1 for
individuals who have been diagnosed with this condition at least once between 1995 and
2015. Post equals 1 for individuals who were born after 1956, and turned 20 after lithium, the
main treatment for bipolar disorder, became available in Denmark in 1976. BD sibling equals
1 for individuals with siblings with BD, and BD sibling in post cohort equals 1 for individuals
with BD siblings born in cohorts after 1956. Controls include indicators for having received
at least one diagnosis of Depression and Schizophrenia, the natural logarithm of the
unemployment rate, an indicator for being enrolled in education, and an indicator for parttime work. Diagnoses data are available for calendar years 1995-2015. All regressions
include cohort and year fixed effects. The sample is restricted to individuals aged 20-60 born
in cohorts 1946-1975; in column (1), the sample is further restricted to include individuals
with positive earnings.
TABLE 8 – OLS, DEPENDENT VARIABLE IS LN(EARNINGS) –INDIVIDUALS WITH EARNINGS
BELOW AND ABOVE THE MINIMUM WAGE
Below MW
(1)
Above MW
(2)
(3)
(4)
BD
-0.678***
-0.719***
0.004
-0.042***
(0.023)
(0.048)
(0.007)
(0.016)
BD x post
0.272***
0.359***
-0.031***
0.011
(0.025)
(0.050)
(0.008)
(0.016)
Controls
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Cohort FE
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Year FE
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Family FE
No
Yes
No
Yes
R-squared
0.037
0.290
0.080
0.558
N
20,809,664
15,412,541
20,809,496
15,992,414
Standard errors in parentheses are clustered at the individual level. *** p<0.01, ** p<0.05, *
p<0.1
Note: The dependent variable is the natural logarithm of earnings, defined as are the sum of
all wages and income from self-employment. The variable BD equals 1 for individuals who
have been diagnosed with this condition at least once between 1995 and 2015. Post equals 1
for individuals who were born after 1956, and turned 20 after lithium, the main treatment for
bipolar disorder, became available in Denmark in 1976. Controls include indicators for
having received at least one diagnosis of Depression and Schizophrenia, the natural logarithm
of the unemployment rate, an indicator for being enrolled in education, and an indicator for
part-time work. Diagnoses data are available for calendar years 1995-2015. All regressions
include cohort and year fixed effects; columns 2 and 4 include family fixed effects. The
sample is restricted to individuals aged 20-60 born in cohorts 1946-1975, with positive
earnings.
TABLE 9 - OLS, DEPENDENT VARIABLE IS = 1 FOR INDIVIDUALS HAVING EARNINGS IN TOP AND BOTTOM PERCENTILES
Top 10%
(1)
BD
BD x post
Controls
Cohort FE
Year FE
Family FE
Mean of Dep. Var.
R-squared
N
Top 25%
(2)
(3)
(4)
Bottom 10%
(5)
(6)
Bottom 25%
(7)
(8)
-0.027***
-0.052***
-0.059***
-0.114***
0.133***
0.149***
0.148***
(0.003)
(0.008)
(0.005)
(0.010)
(0.004)
(0.008)
(0.005)
-0.004
0.021***
-0.015***
0.040***
-0.017***
-0.042***
0.007
(0.003)
(0.008)
(0.005)
(0.011)
(0.005)
(0.008)
(0.006)
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
No
No
No
Yes
No
.10
.10
.25
.25
.10
.10
.25
0.009
0.373
0.014
0.381
0.024
0.210
0.030
41,619,160
31,404,955
41,619,160
31,404,955
41,619,160
31,404,955
41,619,160
Standard errors in parentheses are clustered at the individual level. *** p<0.01, ** p<0.05, * p<0.1
0.182***
(0.010)
-0.039***
(0.011)
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
.24
0.277
31,404,955
Note: The dependent variable equals 1 for individuals with earnings in the top 10 percent (columns 1-2), top 25 percent (columns 3-4), bottom
10 percent (columns 6-7), and bottom 25 percent (columns 7-8) of the earnings distribution. The variable BD equals 1 for individuals who have
been diagnosed with this condition at least once between 1995 and 2015. Post equals 1 for individuals who were born after 1956, and turned 20
after lithium, the main treatment for bipolar disorder, became available in Denmark in 1976. Controls include indicators for having received at
least one diagnosis of Depression and Schizophrenia, the natural logarithm of the unemployment rate, an indicator for being enrolled in
education, and an indicator for part-time work. Diagnoses data are available for calendar years 1995-2015. All regressions include cohort and
year fixed effects; columns 2, 4, 6, and 8 include family fixed effects. The sample is restricted to individuals aged 20-60 born in cohorts 19461975, with positive earnings.
TABLE 10 - DEPENDENT VARIABLE IS EQUAL TO 1 FOR INDIVIDUALS IN MANAGERIAL POSITIONS
All firms
Small/young firms
(3)
(4)
Large/old firms
(5)
(6)
Self-employed
(7)
(8)
(1)
(2)
BD x post
-1.132***
(0.202)
0.036
-2.028***
(0.514)
1.202*
-0.048**
(0.021)
0.013
-0.129*
(0.073)
0.115
-0.874***
(0.142)
0.143
-1.532***
(0.366)
0.895**
2.021***
(0.403)
-1.526***
1.374
(0.870)
-1.035
Controls
Cohort FE
Year FE
(0.216)
Yes
Yes
Yes
(0.526)
Yes
Yes
Yes
(0.028)
Yes
Yes
Yes
(0.076)
Yes
Yes
Yes
(0.150)
Yes
Yes
Yes
(0.375)
Yes
Yes
Yes
(0.439)
Yes
Yes
Yes
(0.894)
Yes
Yes
Yes
BD
Family FE
No
Yes
No
Yes
No
Yes
No
Yes
Mean of Dep. Var.
3.669
3.676
.23
.246
2.165
2.155
7.187
6.577
R-squared
0.008
0.279
0.001
0.103
0.005
0.255
0.005
0.355
N
35,373,502 27,076,046 35,373,502 27,076,046 35,373,502 27,076,046 40,414,954 30,593,590
Note: The dependent variable is an indicator for individuals holding top managements positions, including CEOs, in all firms (columns 1 and 2),
in small/young firms, defined as those having less than 50 employees and less than 5 years of age (columns 3 and 4), and in large/old firms,
defined as those having more than 50 employees and more than 5 years of age (columns 5 and 6), as well as an indicator for self-employed as an
occupation (columns 7 and 8). The variable BD equals 1 for individuals who have been diagnosed with this condition at least once between 1995
and 2015. Post equals 1 for individuals who were born after 1956, and turned 20 after lithium, the main treatment for bipolar disorder, became
available in Denmark in 1976. Controls include indicators for having received at least one diagnosis of Depression and Schizophrenia, the
natural logarithm of the unemployment rate, an indicator for being enrolled in education, and an indicator for part-time work. Diagnoses data are
available for calendar years 1995-2015. All regressions include cohort and year fixed effects; columns 2, 4, 6, and 8 include family fixed effects.
The sample is restricted to individuals aged 20-60 born in cohorts 1946-1975.
TABLE 11 - DEPENDENT VARIABLE IS EQUAL TO 1 FOR EARNINGS EQUAL TO 0 (COLUMNS 1
AND 2) AND FOR INDIVIDUALS ON DISABILITY (COLUMNS 3 AND 4)
P(earnings = 0)
(1)
(2)
P(disability)
(3)
(4)
BD
0.196***
0.198***
0.218***
0.214***
(0.004)
(0.008)
(0.004)
(0.008)
BD x post
-0.065***
-0.073***
-0.128***
-0.122***
(0.005)
(0.009)
(0.005)
(0.008)
Controls
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Cohort FE
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Year FE
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Family FE
No
Yes
No
Yes
Mean of Dep. Var.
.134
.105
.059
.047
R-squared
0.049
0.344
0.092
0.424
N
48,071,128
35,077,362
48,071,128
35,077,362
Standard errors in parentheses are clustered at the individual level. *** p<0.01, ** p<0.05, *
p<0.1
Note: The dependent variable is an indicator for individuals receiving zero earnings in a
given year (columns 1-2) or for individuals on disability (columns 3-4). The variable BD
equals 1 for individuals who have been diagnosed with this condition at least once between
1995 and 2015. Post equals 1 for individuals who were born after 1956, and turned 20 after
lithium, the main treatment for bipolar disorder, became available in Denmark in 1976.
Controls include indicators for having received at least one diagnosis of Depression and
Schizophrenia, the natural logarithm of the unemployment rate, an indicator for being
enrolled in education, and an indicator for part-time work. Diagnoses data are available for
calendar years 1995-2015. All regressions include cohort and year fixed effects; columns 2
and 4 include family fixed effects. The sample is restricted to individuals aged 20-60 born in
cohorts 1946-1975.
TABLE 12 – INTENSITY OF CONDITIONS. OLS, DEPENDENT VARIABLE IS LN(EARNINGS), P(EARNINGS = 0), P(DISABILITY)
Log(earnings)
(1)
BD
P(earnings = 0)
(2)
(3)
P(disability)
(4)
(5)
-0.241***
-0.352***
0.096***
0.098***
0.099***
(0.030)
(0.058)
(0.007)
(0.014)
(0.007)
BD x post
0.008
0.201***
-0.010
-0.039***
-0.105***
(0.035)
(0.061)
(0.009)
(0.015)
(0.008)
# BD episodes
-0.253***
-0.209***
0.071***
0.064***
0.085***
(0.022)
(0.036)
(0.004)
(0.008)
(0.004)
# BD episodes x post
0.098***
0.016
-0.041***
-0.019
-0.019***
(0.025)
(0.034)
(0.005)
(0.008)
(0.005)
Controls
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Cohort
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Year FE
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Family FE
No
Yes
No
Yes
No
Mean of Dep. Var.
--.134
.105
.059
R-squared
0.045
0.306
0.049
0.342
0.093
N
41,619,160
31,404,955
48,071,128
35,077,362
48,071,128
Standard errors in parentheses are clustered at the individual level. *** p<0.01, ** p<0.05, * p<0.1
(6)
0.095***
(0.013)
-0.109***
(0.014)
0.076***
(0.007)
-0.003
(0.007)
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
.047
0.425
35,077,362
Note: The dependent variable is the natural logarithm of earnings, defined as are the sum of all wages and income from self-employment
(columns 1-2), an indicator for zero earnings (columns 3-4), and an indicator for disability (columns 5-6). The variable BD equals 1 for
individuals who have been diagnosed with this condition at least once between 1995 and 2015. Post equals 1 for individuals who were born after
1956, and turned 20 after lithium, the main treatment for bipolar disorder, became available in Denmark in 1976. The variable # BD episodes
counts the number of separate BD diagnosed received between 1995 and 2015 Controls include indicators for having received at least one
diagnosis of Depression and Schizophrenia, the natural logarithm of the unemployment rate, an indicator for being enrolled in education, and an
indicator for part-time work. Diagnoses data are available for calendar years 1995-2015. All regressions include cohort and year fixed effects;
columns 2, 4, 6, and 8 include family fixed effects. The sample is restricted to individuals aged 20-60 born in cohorts 1946-1975; columns (1)
and (2) further restrict the sample to individuals with positive earnings.
TABLE 13 – PLACEBO: INTRODUCTION OF LITHIUM IN 1974. OLS, DEPENDENT VARIABLE IS LN(EARNINGS), P(EARNINGS = 0), P(DISABILITY)
Log(earnings)
(1)
(2)
BD
BD x post 1954
-0.580***
(0.022)
0.128***
(0.024)
-0.715***
(0.048)
0.284***
(0.049)
P(earnings = 0)
(3)
(4)
0.200***
(0.005)
-0.065***
(0.006)
0.197***
(0.011)
-0.068***
(0.011)
P(disability)
(5)
(6)
0.225***
(0.005)
-0.126***
(0.005)
0.217***
(0.010)
-0.119***
(0.010)
Controls
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Cohort
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Year FE
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Family FE
No
Yes
No
Yes
No
Yes
Mean of Dep. Var.
--.134
.105
.059
.047
R-squared
0.045
0.306
0.049
0.344
0.092
0.424
N
41,619,160
31,404,955
48,071,128
35,077,362
48,071,128
35,077,362
Standard errors in parentheses are clustered at the individual level. *** p<0.01, ** p<0.05, * p<0.1
Note: The dependent variable is the natural logarithm of earnings, defined as are the sum of all wages and income from self-employment
(columns 1-2), an indicator for zero earnings (columns 3-4), and an indicator for disability (columns 5-6). The variable BD equals 1 for
individuals who have been diagnosed with this condition at least once between 1995 and 2015. Post equals 1 for individuals who were born after
1954, and turned 20 after lithium, the main treatment for bipolar disorder, was approved by Danish FDA in 1974. Controls include indicators for
having received at least one diagnosis of Depression and Schizophrenia, the natural logarithm of the unemployment rate, an indicator for being
enrolled in education, and an indicator for part-time work. Diagnoses data are available for calendar years 1995-2015. All regressions include
cohort and year fixed effects; columns 2, 4, 6, and 8 include family fixed effects. The sample is restricted to individuals aged 20-60 born in
cohorts 1946-1975; columns (1) and (2) further restrict the sample to individuals with positive earnings.
DATA APPENDIX
Information on all demographic variables (age, gender, children, parents, employment and occupations) are drawn from a set of registries
previously known as the Integrated Database for Labor Market Research (IDA). These registries combine high-accuracy information across
more than 150 government registries.
Data on psychiatric patients are drawn from the LPSYDIAG registry. Data on prescriptions come from the LMDB registry.
Information on families, households and demographics are from the BEF, FAIN, FAM, FTDK, FTDM, UDDA and IDAP registries. Data on
employment, occupations, unemployment, income and employers are drawn from the IDAN, IDAS, FIRM, IND and AKM registries.
Information on start-ups is drawn from the IVPE and IVPS registries.
We link individual-level variables across these datasets using social security numbers (SSN). People born in Demark receive their SSNs at birth.
Immigrants and foreign employees are assigned an SSN by the municipal office or the International Citizen Service when they receive a work
permit or residence permit.
We define creative occupations using the ISCO variable in the AKS Danish registry data (variables DISCO88 and DISCO08). We link the
ISCO-88 and ISCO-08 using the official correspondence table, available at http://www.ilo.org/public/english/bureau/stat/isco/.
TABLE A1: LIST OF VARIABLES
Variable
Variable name
Prescriptions and Diagnoses
BD
Definition
Indicator for individuals with
diagnosis code ICD-10: F31
Years available
1995-2013
Registry name
Registry
Landspatientregistret for
Psykiatri Diagnoser
LPSYDIAG!
Mania
Indicator for individuals with
diagnosis code ICD-10: F30, and 1995-2013
for which BD = 0
Landspatientregistret for
Psykiatri Diagnoser
LPSYDIAG!
Schizophrenia
Indicator for individuals with
diagnosis codes ICD-10: F20F29
LPSYDIAG!
1995-2013
Landspatientregistret for
Psykiatri Diagnoser
Depression
Indicator for individuals with
diagnosis codes ICD-10: F32
1995-2013
Landspatientregistret for
Psykiatri Diagnoser
LPSYDIAG!
Lithium
Indicator for individuals with at
least 1 prescription of lithium
(ATC: N05AN)
Labor Market Variables
Earnings
Executive
ERHVERVSINDK Sum of total wages for all jobs
+ NETOVSKUD
and income from selfemployment
STILL
Indicator for individuals with
occupation, STILL = 31
Medicinal Product Statistics
LMDB
1995-2013
Income and Employment
IND, IDAP and
IDAN
Employment
IDAN/AKS
1995-2013
1995-2013
Self-employment
Creative professions
STILL, PSTILL
ISCO08, ISCO88 !!
Indicator for individuals with
occupation STILL or PSTILL =
11, 12, 13, 14, 19
Employment
IDAN/AKS
Employment
IDAN/AKS
Employment
IDAN
Demographics
IDAP
1995-2013
Indicator for individuals with
occupation (See Table A2)
1995-2013
Part-time work
TILKNYT
Indicator for individuals with a
full-time contract
1995-2013
Disability
PSTILL
Indicator for individuals with
variable PSTILL = 93
1995-2013
Days of unemployment
ARLEDGR!
Demographics
IDAP
Enrollment in education
IG_VFRA!!
Number of days of
unemployment (based on
1995-2013
information from the
unemployment funds)
Indicator for individuals enrolled
in any education program
1995-2013
Education
UDDA
Firm Characteristics
Firm age
START_DATO
Firm characteristics
FIRM
Firm size
GF_AARSV
Date of establishment of each
firm
Number of full-time employees
Firm characteristics
FIRM
Family information
BEF, FAIN and
FAM
Family
Mother ID
Individual identifier of mother
1995-2013
1995-2013
1995-2013
TABLE A2: CREATIVE PROFESSIONS IN KYAGA ET AL. (2011) AND LUDWIG ET AL. (1992)
Profession
Kyaga (2011)*
University teachers
Photographers
051
946
Visual artists and
designers
081
ISCO-88**/***
2310 University and
Higher Education Teachers
3131 Photographers
2452 Visual artists
(Sculptors, Painters and
Related Artists)
082
Display artists and
designers
Performing artists
083
086
3471 Decorators and
Commercial Designers
2455 Film, Stage and
Related Actors and
Directors
2454 Choreographers and
Dancers
ISCO-08***
2310 University and Higher
Education Teachers
3431 Photographers
3521 Broadcasting and
Audiovisual Technicians
2651 Visual artists (Sculptors,
Painters and Related Artists)
2166 Graphic and Multimedia
Designers
3432 Interior Designers and
Decorators
3435 Other Artistic and
Cultural Associate
Professionals
2163 Product and Garment
Designers
2166 Graphic and Multimedia
Designers
3433 Gallery, Museum and
Library Technicians
2654 Film, Stage and Related
Directors and Producers
2655 Actors
2653 Dancers and
Choreographers
Kyaga Ludwig Kyaga + Ludwig
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
Composers and
musicians
087
Authors
084
Other literary and
artistic work
Architects
088
2453 Composers,
Musicians and Singers
2451 Authors, Journalists
and Other Writers
2652 Musicians, Singers and
Composers
2431 Advertising and
Marketing Professionals
2432 Public Relations
Professionals
2641 Authors and Related
Writers
2642 Journalists
3435 Other Artistic and
Cultural Associate
Professionals
3474 Clowns, Magicians,
Acrobats and Related
Associate Professionals
2141 Architects, Town and
Traffic Planners
2161 Building Architects
2162 Landscape Architects
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
Note: Definition of creative professions. *) Kyaga et. al. (2011) "Creativity and mental disorder: family study of 300 000 people with severe mental
disorder", The British Journal of Psychiatry, 199, 373–379. **) Kyaga (2014) "Creativity and Psychopathology", PhD Thesis, Stockholm, Sweden:
Karolinska Instituttet. ***) International Standard Classification of Occupation (ISCO-08), Index correspondance with ISCO-88, International
Labor Organization.
TABLE A3: DESCRIPTION OF DIAGNOSES
!
!
Variable
ICD code
ICD definitions
BD
ICD-10 30
A disorder characterized by two or more episodes in which the patient's mood and activity levels are
significantly disturbed, this disturbance consisting on some occasions of an elevation of mood and
increased energy and activity (hypomania or mania) and on others of a lowering of mood and
decreased energy and activity (depression). Repeated episodes of hypomania or mania only are
classified as bipolar.
Mania
ICD-10 31
A disorder which is elevated out of keeping with the patient's circumstances and may vary from
carefree joviality to almost uncontrollable excitement. Elation is accompanied by increased energy,
resulting in overactivity, pressure of speech, and a decreased need for sleep. Attention cannot be
sustained, and there is often marked distractibility. Self-esteem is often inflated with grandiose ideas
and overconfidence. Loss of normal social inhibitions may result in behavior that is reckless,
foolhardy, or inappropriate to the circumstances, and out of character.
Depression
ICD-10: F32
A mental condition marked by ongoing feelings of sadness, despair, loss of energy, and difficulty
dealing with normal daily life. Other symptoms of depression include feelings of worthlessness and
hopelessness, loss of pleasure in activities, changes in eating or sleeping habits, and thoughts of death
or suicide.
Schizophrenia
ICD-10: F20-F29
A group of severe mental disorders in which a person has trouble telling the difference between real
and unreal experiences, thinking logically, having normal emotional responses to others, and
behaving normally in social situations. Symptoms include seeing, hearing, feeling things that are not
there, having false ideas about what is taking place or who one is, nonsense speech, unusual
behavior, lack of emotion, and social withdrawal.
TABLE A4 –AVERAGE EARNINGS (IN US$)
All
pre-1956
post-1956
CEO in small/young firms
pre-1956
post-1956
Self-employed
pre-1956
post-1956
Receiving disability pay
pre-1956
post-1956
All
52,307
(83,476)
54,180
(140,099)
51583
(45,499)
103,648
(115763)
101,093
(120,899)
104,483
(114,024)
70,683
(296,012)
75190
(476,117)
68,249
(111,864)
4,061
(10,447)
4,763
(13,605)
3,608
(7,727)
BD
35,359
(35,319)
38,076
(41386)
34411
(32887)
89,058
(136,733)
69,203
(45,547)
94,098
(151071)
53,629
(94,634)
57,456
(106,007)
51,537
(87,733)
3,221
(15,206)
3,452
(23,766)
3,091
(6,541)
Depression
37,642
(335,991)
26,047
(35,546)
24,238
(28,385)
84,795
(201,603)
79,070
(58,931)
86,696
(230,200)
50,500
(84,178)
59,151
(100,946)
46,491
(74,812)
3,506
(7,827)
4,158
(10,261)
3,206
(6,384)
Schizophrenia
24,661
(27826)
26,041
(27,772)
24,317
(27,829)
101,104
(218,782)
47,771
(38537)
121,5604
(253,757)
35,669
(54469)
39,931
(56795)
34,193
(53,565)
2,145
(5,617)
2,112
(8,943)
2,154
(4,142)
Note: Means and standard deviations (in parentheses) of annual earnings (measured in US dollars)
for individuals aged 20-60 born in cohorts 1946-1976 between 1995 and 2015. Earnings are
measured in 2015 US dollars and are the sum of all wages and income from self-employment. The
variables BD, Depression, and Schizophrenia equal 1 for individuals who have ever been diagnosed
with these conditions at least once between 1995 and 2015. Diagnoses data are available for
calendar years 1995-2015.
TABLE A5– COMORBIDITY: BD AND OTHER MENTAL DISORDERS
BD + Depression BD + Schizophrenia BD + Depression + Schizophrenia
All
6277
3093
1164
pre-1956
2236
1114
392
post-1956
4041
1979
772
FIGURE A1– BIPOLAR DISORDER AND THE BRAIN
Note: The images show the brain regions (right insula and frontal cortex) where volume
decreased more over approximately two years in adolescents with bipolar disorder, compared
to adolescents without bipolar disorder. Image credit: Blumberg lab and Biological
Psychiatry.
FIGURE A2– DISTRIBUTION OF AGE AT ONSET FOR BD/MANIA- COHORTS BORN BEFORE AND
AFTER 1956
Note: Distribution of the age at which individuals received their first BD diagnosis, for
cohorts born before and after 1956. The sample is restricted to individuals between 20 and 60
years of age, born between 1946 and 1976.
FIGURE A3– AVERAGE AGE AT ONSET FOR BD/MANIA, DEPRESSION, AND SCHIZOPHRENIA
Note: Average age at which individuals received their first diagnosis, by cohort and
condition. The sample is restricted to individuals between 20 and 60 years of age, born
between 1946 and 1976.
FIGURE A4– SHARE OF INDIVIDUALS DIAGNOSED, BY CONDITION AND ACROSS COHORTS
Note: Counts of individuals with at least one diagnosis of depression, BD, or schizophrenia
between 1995 and 2013.
FIGURE A5 – EARNING DISTRIBUTION: INDIVIDUALS WITH BD/MANIA, THEIR SIBLINGS, AND
HEALTHY INDIVIDUALS
Note: Kernel of the distribution of earnings, separately for individuals diagnosed with BD at
least once, for their siblings, and for healthy individuals. The sample is restricted to
individuals born between 1946 and 1976.