Does Stress Shorten Your Life? Evidence from Parental Bereavement

Abstract

This paper studies how stress affects the mortality risk. Using a flexible approach and allowing for timevarying treatment effects, I find no impact of stress on the short-run mortality risk but a substantially increase in the long-run. The effects are especially pronounced for men. I provide evidence that this is likely caused by changes towards adverse health behaviours as a reaction to stress. Investigating the possible protective effects of mental health support, I find that it can substantially lower the mortality risk for women. The results for men point towards lower effectiveness likely due to stigma effects associated with mental health care. Finally, I show that my results are robust to specific departure of my identifying assumptions.