Pandemic Depression: COVID-19 and the Mental Health of the Self-Employed

Arbeitspapier

We investigate the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on self-employed people’s mental health. Using representative longitudinal survey data from Germany, we reveal differential effects by gender: whereas self-employed women experienced a substantial deterioration in their mental health, self-employed men displayed no significant changes up to early 2021. Financial losses are important in explaining these differences. In addition, we find larger mental health responses among self-employed women who were directly affected by government-imposed restrictions and bore an increased childcare burden due to school and daycare closures. We also find that self-employed individuals who are more resilient coped better with the crisis.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: IZA Discussion Papers ; No. 15260

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Entrepreneurship ; Personal Income, Wealth, and Their Distributions ; Health and Inequality ; Health: Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health ; Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
• Subject: representative longitudinal survey data ; self-employment ; gender ; mental health ; COVID-19 ; PHQ-4 score ; resilience

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Caliendo, Marco ; Graeber, Daniel ; Kritikos, Alexander S. ; Seebauer, Johannes
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
• (where): Bonn
• (when): 2022

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/263476
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:44 AM CET