This study paper examines the relationship between schizophrenia and employment. While most other studies have used cross-sectional data to estimate this relationship, this study uses longitudinal register data and shows the development in the employment rate of people with schizophrenia, from 15 years before the first admission to a psychiatric hospital until 10 years after this admission. The study finds a considerable drop in the employment rate for people with schizophrenia 6 years before the first hospitalization, and the employment rate stabilizes at 18% after the first admission. As family and neighborhood environments can be important factors in the development of mental illnesses and labor market outcomes, the study uses sibling-fixed effects to estimate the relationship between schizophrenia and employment. The difference in the employment rate in 2007 for the siblings with and without schizophrenia is estimated at 67%. This difference is reduced to 56% when control variables are included - such as marital status, educational achievement, and work experience - but remain unchanged when applying a sibling-fixed effect approach which controls for unobserved family specific characteristics that the siblings share.

Mental illnesses - such as schizophrenia, affective disorders, and personality disorders - are associated with heavy economic and non-economic burdens. This study paper examines the relationship between socioeconomic status in early childhood and the probability of developing schizophrenia, affective disorders, and personality disorders. The study looks at Danish men born in 1981 and have control for family factors one year before the birth of the child. The results show that men born in low-income families are more likely to be hospitalized with affective disorders. Men born in families where the father was not employed at the child's birth are more likely to be hospitalized with schizophrenia or personality disorder, compared with men born in families where the father was employed as wage-earner. In general, few people in the population have a severe mental illness and, consequently, the probability of developing a severe mental illness is low. However, the relative differences in the predicted probability of developing a mental illness are large when comparing children who grew up families with average characteristics with children who grew up in families with low socioeconomic status - i.e., household income is low, parental education is basic, and parental occupational status is not employed.

This study paper examines parental influence on school children's everyday activities that are related to a healthy or an unhealthy lifestyle. The paper is using the Danish Time-Use and Consumption Survey (DTUC) from 2008/2009 with information on fathers', mothers', and children's time use. (Series: The Rockwool Foundation Research Unit - Discussion Paper)