Political Movements and Mental Health: Evidence from the Anti-Corruption Campaign in China

Abstract

In this paper, we study how a political movement aects government employees'
mental health. Using eld data from the anti-corruption campaign in China, we nd
that potential depressive symptoms among government employees signicantly increase
under intense corruption investigations. This result is conrmed when we use the
political connection between provincial leaders and national leaders as the instrument
variable in the estimate. However, no similar result is observed among ordinary Chinese
citizens. This change in the mental health status among government employees is
aected by corruption investigations of low-ranking ocials rather than high-ranking
ocials. Moreover, the impact of the anti-corruption campaign on depressive symptoms
is concentrated on male government employees from coastal and urban areas.

Note:
Funding Information: None to declare.

Conflict of Interests: We hereby declare that we have no relevant or material financial interests that relate to the research in this paper, and no parties had the right to review the paper prior to disclosure.

Keywords: Mental Health, Corruption, Political Movement