H.H. (Hermien) Dijk, PhD

Current projects:

When Feeling Blue Gets You into the Red: The effect of Mental Health Problems on the Onset of Problematic Debt 

Problematic debts can have far-reaching consequences for debtors, creditors and society as a whole. This study investigates whether there is a causal effect of mental health problems on the onset of individual problematic debt. We use nationwide individual-level panel data on mental healthcare use and problematic debt. We employ a fixed effects instrumental variable approach, using the death of a sibling or child as instruments for mental health problems.

Health and Labour Supply over the Lifecycle: Mental and Physical Health and the Role of Labour Market Experience

Mental health appears to follow a lifecycle pattern that is distinctly different from physical and subjective health. However, current lifecycle models generally model health in such a way that mental health is largely ignored. Hence, in this study we develop a lifecycle model that explicitly models mental and physical health as two different components of overall health and include human capital in the form of labour market experience to account for potential longterm effects of poor health early in the lifecycle.

The Effect of Accessible Mental Healthcare at the GP on Secondary Child and Adolescent Mental Healthcare Use

In many municipalities, child and adolescent mental healthcare practitioners (Dutch: praktijkondersteuners jeugd-GGZ: POH-jGGZ) offer children and adolescents accessible mental healthcare at their GP and refer them to secondary mental healthcare when necessary. The aim is to prevent a worsening of problems through secondary prevention and rapid, early and adequate help. One of the intended results of the use of a POH-jGGZ is a decrease in referrals to and costs of secondary child and adolescent mental healthcare. In this project, we use administrative municipal data to investigate what the effects of the use of POH-jGGZ are on referrals and the costs of these referrals.