Depression affecting work performance: gender differentials across occupations

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to study the incidence of depression affecting work (DAW) performance and estimates gender differences across occupations. Design/methodology/approach – Using Labor Force Survey data from the UK in 2007, the authors first decompose the differential on the aggregate incidence rate of DAW between men and women into two components: the gender effect and the occupational effect. Then, the authors identify the stressors of DAW by means of a logit regression analysis. Findings – The empirical results show that gender is not a significant explanatory variable of DAW. Further, when differences are analyzed for each gender separately, results show that the effect of occupations is stronger within females than within males. Originality/value – Most of previous studies focus on occupational causes of depression. By contrast, this paper investigates the effect of depression on work performance.