NBER Publications by Margarita Alegria

This paper uses the National Comorbidity Survey – Replication to estimate the effects of recent psychiatric disorder on employment, hours worked, and earnings. We employ methods proposed in Altonji, Elder and Taber (2005) which use selection on observable traits to provide information regarding selection along unobservable factors. Among males, disorder is associated with reductions of 13-17 percentage points in labor force participation and employment, depending on the sample and the model. Among females, we find smaller, less consistent associations between disorder and labor force participation and employment. There are no effects of disorder on earnings or hours worked among employed individuals.

This paper investigates to what extent psychiatric disorders and mental distress affect labor market outcomes among ethnic minorities of Latino and Asian descent, most of whom are immigrants. Using data from the National Latino and Asian American Study, we examine the labor market effects of meeting diagnostic criteria for any psychiatric disorder in the past 12 months as well as the effects of psychiatric distress in the past year. Among Latinos, psychiatric disorders and mental distress are associated with detrimental effects on employment and absenteeism, similar to effects found in previous analyses of mostly white, American born populations. Among Asians, we find mixed evidence that psychiatric disorders and mental distress detract from labor market outcomes.