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Dissertation Defense |
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Candidate:
Alketa Hysenbegasi Degree of:
Doctor of Philosophy
Dr.
Matthew Higgins , Chair Abstract: This
dissertation estimates the total cost of depression and the benefits
of its treatment to individual students at a large Midwest Public University.
It is known that chronic depression is a common disorder, creating health
problems in 10% of the population and for this reason, its economic
costs (direct and indirect costs) to the society have been widely analyzed.
However, so far, there is no completed study that investigates the economic
impact of depression on the worker performance that considers both subjective
and objective measures of productivity. This is because objective measures
of productivity are difficult to collect and they are available only
for some categories of occupations. Most studies above have relied on
self-reported data of productivity that may bias the estimated cost
of depression and have usually investigated only one cost component
of depression. In
order to fill this gap in literature, I evaluate college students who
are involved in academic and non-academic activities. There are two
reasons for choosing this population group. First, depression is usually
called the "youth disease" because of its highest prevalence
among young people aged 18-34 years old and second, students belong
to a unique set of individuals whose quantity and quality of work is
regularly evaluated through First,
I measure the overall impact of depression disorders and the effectiveness
of its treatments of the student performance at school. Tests for selectivity
bias and error component are performed. Random and fixed effects estimators
are used to investigate the effect of the student health status and
other factors on their school performance, which is measured by the
student GPA. An important issue discussed here is the effectiveness
of depression treatment. I expect that depression treatments such as
counseling and/or drug therapies lead to changes in the student health
status which will be followed by positive changes in the student performance
at school. Further, I develop and validate different measurements of
the student performance. The correlation between the student self-reported
performance measure and the GPA is evaluated. Second,
the student's activities also extend outside the academic environment.
Depression disorders might affect the student's ability to work and
to perform household duties. I investigate the possible impact of depression
on student's labor market outcomes. Similar econometric techniques (random
effects and fixed effects estimators) are applied to the equations of
the student's employment, work hours, and work performance. A parallel
analysis is conducted to analyze the impairment of depression on household
production. Finally
I compute the overall cost of depression and net benefits of its treatment
to the student population. To evaluate this cost, I consider the total
outpatient, inpatient and pharmaceutical expenditures for depression.
In addition, I calculate the total indirect cost of depression due to
less performance at school and missed hours of work, and reduction in
scheduled work hours. My calculation reveals the net benefits of depression
treatments provided at the University's facilities. This project may
support further research that can demonstrate the value of counseling
and health services on school outcomes versus alternative uses of University
funds.
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