The mental health consequences of globalisation

Micro evidence for employed workers has led to the claim that globalisation, i.e. higher trade exposure, has far-reaching implications for mental health problems in some advanced countries. Evidence for other aspects of globalisation at the cross-country level is scarce. Using information on depression and anxiety, combined with proxies for different dimensions of globalisation, we undertake a detail analysis in a large sample of countries. We go beyond the simple impact of globalisation in observable labor market outcomes and show that more globalized counties experience higher mental distress than less globalized countries. In particular, we show that even though trade globalisation reduces mental health disorders at the country-level, the positive influence of social globalisation prevails over the economic dimension. Hence, our results complement documented consequences of globalisation on mental health outcomes by showing that factors involving cross-border movement of cultures and openness of media play a major role.