Corporate Financing Frictions and Employee Mental Health

Abstract

This paper argues that corporate financing frictions can have an adverse effect on employee mental health, an important determinant of employee productivity. To identify the causal effects of financing frictions, we exploit variation in firms’ need to refinance their long-term debt in 2008, a period when refinancing became more difficult due to the credit crunch. Using administrative microdata, we find that antidepressant use grows significantly more among employees of firms in higher need of debt refinancing. Most of this effect occurs at employees keeping their jobs, pointing to decreased perceptions of job security as a possible transmission channel.