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The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics pp 10225–10233Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

Personal Debt and Psychological Health

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Abstract

Problematic personal debts and associated outcomes, such as bankruptcy and foreclosure, lead to significant declines in psychological health. This article summarises the recent literature and discusses the key issues in measurement and causality. Medical studies show that problem debts are associated with depression, self-harm and even suicide. Recent studies using econometric techniques show that some of the association in self-reported data is due to perception bias. Quasi-experimental studies using data from the housing crises show the onset of problem debt causes deterioration in psychological health, including effects upon physical health and health behaviours.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. http://link.springer.com/referencework/10.1057/978-1-349-95121-5

    John Gathergood

Authors
  1. John Gathergood
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Selected Works

Selected Works

  • Bridges, S., and R. Disney. 2010. Debt and depression. Journal of Health Economics 29: 388–403.

  • Gathergood, J. 2012. Debt and depression: Causal links and social norm effects. Economic Journal 122:1094–14.

  • Richardson, T., P. Elliott, and R. Roberts. 2013. The relationship between personal unsecured debt and mental physical health: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Clinical Psychology Review, forthcoming.

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© 2018 Macmillan Publishers Ltd.

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Cite this entry

Gathergood, J. (2018). Personal Debt and Psychological Health. In: The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95189-5_2861

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