The ‘welcomed lockdown’ hypothesis? Mental wellbeing and mobility restrictions

Costa Font, Joan; Knapp, Martin; Vilaplana Prieto, Cristina

Publication:
The ‘welcomed lockdown’ hypothesis? Mental wellbeing and mobility restrictions

dc.contributor.author	Costa Font, Joan
dc.contributor.author	Knapp, Martin
dc.contributor.author	Vilaplana Prieto, Cristina
dc.contributor.department	Fundamentos del Análisis Económico
dc.date.accessioned	2025-01-09T11:23:36Z
dc.date.available	2025-01-09T11:23:36Z
dc.date.copyright	© The Author(s) 2022
dc.date.issued	2022-08-12
dc.description.abstract	The COVID-19 pandemic and its mobility restrictions have been an external shock, influencing mental wellbeing. However, does risk exposure to COVID-19 affect the mental wellbeing effect of lockdowns? This paper examines the ‘welcomed lockdown’ hypothesis, namely the extent to which there is a level of risk where mobility restrictions are not a hindrance to mental wellbeing. We exploit the differential timing of exposure the pandemic, and the different stringency of lockdown policies across European countries and we focus on the effects on two mental health conditions, namely anxiety and depression. We study whether differences in the individual symptoms of anxiety and depression are explained by the combination of pandemic mortality and stringency of lockdown. We draw on an event study approach, complemented with a Difference-in-Difference (DiD), and Regression Discontinuity Design (RDD). Our estimates suggest an average increase in depression (3.95%) and anxiety (10%) symptoms relative to the mean level on the day that lockdown took effect. However, such effects are wiped out when a country’s exhibits high mortality (‘pandemic category 5’). Hence, we conclude that in an environment of high mortality, lockdowns no longer give rise to a reduction in mental wellbeing consistent with the ‘welcome lockdown’ hypothesis.	es
dc.format	application/pdf	es
dc.format.extent	21	es
dc.identifier.citation	European Journal of Health Economics, 2022, Vol. 24, pp. 679-699
dc.identifier.doi	https://doi.org/10.1007/s10198-022-01490-6
dc.identifier.issn	Print: 1618-7598
dc.identifier.issn	Electronic: 1618-7601
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10201/148133
dc.language	eng	es
dc.publisher	Springer	es
dc.relation	We thank Spain’s Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (MICINN) and the ERDF for fnancial support: ECO2017-83668-R, PID2020-114231RB-I00 and RTI2018-095256-BI00.	es
dc.relation.ispartof	Proyecto de investigación:	es
dc.relation.publisherversion	https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10198-022-01490-6	es
dc.rights	Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivates 4.0 International
dc.rights.accessRights	info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
dc.rights.uri	http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
dc.subject	Anxiety	es
dc.subject	Depression	es
dc.subject	COVID 19	es
dc.subject	Pandemic	es
dc.subject	Lockdown	es
dc.title	The ‘welcomed lockdown’ hypothesis? Mental wellbeing and mobility restrictions	es
dc.type	info:eu-repo/semantics/article	es
dc.type.version	info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersión
dspace.entity.type	Publication	es