ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Mental health and financial risk attitudes: Panel data evidence from Australia
Dusanee Kesavayuth,
Vasileios Zikos,
Dusanee Kesavayuth
Department of Economics, Faculty of Economics, Kasetsart University, Bangkok, Thailand
Search for more papers by this authorCorresponding Author
Vasileios Zikos
Faculty of Economics, and Center of Excellence for Health Economics, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand
Correspondence
Vasileios Zikos, Faculty of Economics, and Center of Excellence for Health Economics, Chulalongkorn University, 254 Phayathai Road, Pathumwan, Bangkok 10330, Thailand.
Email: [email protected]
Search for more papers by this authorDusanee Kesavayuth,
Vasileios Zikos,
Dusanee Kesavayuth
Department of Economics, Faculty of Economics, Kasetsart University, Bangkok, Thailand
Search for more papers by this authorCorresponding Author
Vasileios Zikos
Faculty of Economics, and Center of Excellence for Health Economics, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand
Correspondence
Vasileios Zikos, Faculty of Economics, and Center of Excellence for Health Economics, Chulalongkorn University, 254 Phayathai Road, Pathumwan, Bangkok 10330, Thailand.
Email: [email protected]
Search for more papers by this authorAbstract
We examine the impact of mental health on financial risk attitudes using panel data from Australia. In an instrumental-variables framework that tries to address the endogeneity of mental health, we find that poor mental health can lead to a higher willingness to take risks. Specifically, a standard deviation decrease in mental health leads to a 10.3 percentage point increase in the likelihood of taking financial risks. This finding remains robust across various sensitivity checks and highlights the significant role that mental health plays in risk-taking preferences in financial matters.
CONFLICT OF INTEREST STATEMENT
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Open Research
DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT
The data that supports the findings of this study are available from the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research. Restrictions apply to the availability of these data, which were used under license for this study. Data are available from the authors with the permission of the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research.
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