Mental Health Across Europe

Liam has been posting recently about mental health. One source of data on this is international surveys which allow cross country comparisons. Share is especially useful in this regard. The following graph demonstrates that there is a considerable amount of variation in Europe with respect to depressive symptoms. This index is derived from 12 binary variables measuring the presence or absence of the following: depression, pessimism, wishing death, guilt, sleeplessness, disinterest, irritability, loss of appetite, fatigue, lack of concentration, lack of enjoyment, and tearfulness. The EURO-D scale has been previously validated (Prince et al., 1999), and seems like it should be less susceptible to the usual problems associated with self assessments as it directly measures the presence of these symptoms. I have just pooled the data from the first two waves and some countries are in here only once, and I have ordered the countries in the sample according to the mean of this scale. Nevertheless, the spread is pretty striking. At the individual level anything above 3 is potentially indicative of clinical levels of depression, which is very worrying for Italy, Israel, Spain and Poland. One explanation for these differences relates to the prevalence of different types of social networks, a topic I will post about again at some stage.

Of course this is before the recession. Angus Deaton’s paper on wellbeing and the financial crisis has already been mentioned here.

Infant mortality and maternal education around the world

The Health Metrics site linked below has this excellent graphic showing the relationship between mothers education and infant mortality around the world and how it changes over time.

How Much Do Educational Outcomes Matter in OECD Countries?

L Woessman, E Hanushek
IZA dp 5401
Existing growth research provides little explanation for the very large differences in long-run growth performance across OECD countries. We show that cognitive skills can account for growth differences within the OECD, whereas a range of economic institutions and quantitative measures of tertiary education cannot. Under the growth model estimates and plausible projection parameters, school improvements falling within currently observed performance levels yield very large gains. The present value of OECD aggregate gains through 2090 could be as much as $275 trillion, or 13.8 percent of the discounted value of future GDP. Extensive sensitivity analyses indicate that, while differences between model frameworks and alternative parameter choices make a difference, the economic impact of improved educational outcomes remains enormous. Interestingly, the quantitative difference
between an endogenous and neoclassical model framework – with improved skills affecting the long-run growth rate versus just the steady-state income level – matters less than academic discussions suggest. We close by discussing evidence on which education policy reforms may be able to bring about the simulated improvements in educational outcomes.

Anchoring Vignettes and the International Comparison of Public Sector Performance

Nigel Rice, Silvana Robone, and Peter C. Smith (from the Centre for Health Economics, University of York) have written a paper on the use of anchoring vignettes to enhance the international comparability of public sector performance.

Using data on health systems responsiveness across 18 OECD countries (contained within the World Health Survey), the authors outline the issues that arise in comparative inference that relies on respondent self-reports. The problem of reporting bias is described and illustrated together with potential solutions brought about through the use of anchoring vignettes. The utility of vignettes to aid cross-country analyses and its implications for comparative inference of health system performance are discussed.

What is the going rate for flipping burgers?

In the current edition of Princeton Weekly, there is an article about Professor Orley Ashenfelter, from the Department of Economics and Industrial Relations Section at Princeton University. When faced with the question as to whether China’s and India’s growing economies will soon rival that of the United States, Ashenfelter poses the question: "What is the going rate for flipping burgers?"

He is conducting a study of McDonald’s employees’ wages in many countries to illustrate the relative strength of their economies, and early results indicate that developing nations still have a long climb. While the average hourly “McWage” is around $6 in the United States and other western nations, the same job in China, India and other developing countries pays less than 50 cents.