An Analysis on Danish Micro Data - School of Economics and ...

is perhaps not surprising, since they are all treated with medication for very serious illnesses and
they might simply not be able to work. Furthermore they might be outside the labour market for
other reasons, such as education or early retirement.
Next some of the variables will be treated in more detail by looking at the correlations amongst
them.
4.3.2 Correlations among the variables
Percentage
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Employed Unemployed Outside the
labour market
Position in the labour market
Non-antidep
<strong>An</strong>tidep
Figure 5 The average percentage employed, unemployed and outside the labour market of users and non-users of
antidepressants.
Figure 5 depicts the average percentage employed, unemployed and outside the labour market both
for users and non-users of antidepressants. It appears that depression correlates negatively with
employment, and positively with unemployment and being outside the labour market. This is also
confirmed from the calculated correlation coefficients, which show that the correlations between
usage of antidepressants and the employed-, unemployed- and outside the labour market-dummies
are -0.096, 0.067 and 0.067, respectively. These results are all significant at a 1 % level and are
reinforced by the literature. For example Marcotte et al. (1999) find that for people in the labour
force, the likelihood of depression is smaller for people that are employed, whereas the likelihood
of experiencing depression is higher for the unemployed participating in the labour force. However,
Marcotte et al. (1999) mention that based on lifetime prevalence, depression is equally widespread
inside and outside the labour force. This does not immediately relate to the findings from figure 5,
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