The influence of the economic crisis on the association between unemployment and health: an empirical analysis for Spain

Abstract

To estimate the impact of (particularly longterm) unemployment on the overall and mental health of the Spanish working-age population and to check whether the effects of unemployment on health have increased or been tempered as a consequence of the economic crisis. Methods We apply a matching technique to cross-sectional microdata from the Spanish Health Survey for the years 2006 and 2011–2012 to estimate the average treatment effect of unemployment on self-assessed health (SAH) in the last year, mental problems in the last year and on the mental health risk in the short term. We also use a differences-in-differences estimation method between the two periods to check if the impact of unemployment on health depends on the economic context.