Description:
This paper investigates the impact of the dramatic increase in antidepressant consumption on population health and labor market outcomes in Switzerland between 2002 and 2014. Our research design builds on a modified version of the popular shift-share instrument. This instrument exploits the large and heterogeneous growth in antidepressant sales due to product innovation (the shift) and the local market power of pharmaceutical companies (the share). Our estimates show that increased antidepressant sales cause a sharp rise in hospital admissions related to depression symptoms, while we find no economically relevant effects on labor market outcomes