Finance and Mental Health

Abstract

Efforts to quantify and mitigate the damage associated with unexpected events that cause economic harm, such as natural disasters or unexpected falls in asset values, focus on material damage. This approach nevertheless ignores a type of harm that is highly relevant for those affected and for society: damage to mental health. This article discusses the extent to which financial services could help mitigate the effect of adverse shocks on mental health, presents a selection of the available scientific evidence, and describes the challenges facing studies aimed at analyzing this hypothesis.