Discussion paper

DP16640 Mental Health Therapy as a Core Strategy for Increasing Human Capital: Evidence from Ghana

We study the impact of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for individuals selected from the general population of poor households in rural Ghana. Results from 2-3 months after a randomized intervention show strong impacts on mental and physical health, cognitive and socioemotional skills, and downstream economic outcomes. We find no evidence of heterogeneity by baseline mental distress; we
argue that this is because CBT can improve human capital for a general population of poor individuals through two pathways. First, CBT reduces vulnerability to deteriorating mental health; and second, CBT directly improves bandwidth, increasing cognitive and socioemotional skills and hence economic outcomes.

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Citation

Barker, N, G Bryan, D Karlan, A Ofori-Atta and C Udry (2021), ‘DP16640 Mental Health Therapy as a Core Strategy for Increasing Human Capital: Evidence from Ghana‘, CEPR Discussion Paper No. 16640. CEPR Press, Paris & London. https://cepr.org/publications/dp16640