Christoph Kronenberg, Jan R.

Boehnke,
How did the 2008-11 financial crisis affect work-related common mental distress?
Evidence from 393 workplaces in Great Britain,
Economics & Human Biology,
Volume 33,
2019,
Pages 193-200,
ISSN 1570-677X,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ehb.2019.02.008.
(https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1570677X18302430)
Abstract: This paper analyses how the 2008-11 financial crisis relates to work-
related common mental distress of those with continuous employment during the
crisis. The literature connecting the 2008-11 financial crisis to common mental
distress (anti-depressant drug use, suicide, etc.) generally estimates a negative
effect. We used a sample of 393 workplaces from the 2011 Work and Employment
Relations Study (WERS) for which employers and worker representatives agreed on
that the crisis affected the workplace. WERS then provides detailed questions about
how the financial crisis affected the workplace. We use these questions to show
which crisis-induced work-changes are important for work-related common mental
distress. In the British-context, increased workload and changes in nonfinancial
benefits of work are most relevant worsening work-related common mental distress by
1.8 and 0.9 on a scale from 0-30 respectively.
Keywords: Common mental distress; 2008-11 financial crisis; Recession; Economic
shock; 2011 WERS