Blinder-Oaxaca Decomposition of Gender Differences in Depression in Korea

Abstract

Recently, there has been research that attempts to identify factors influencing depression in women and investigates the different aspects of mental disorders between men and women in Korea. Also, some OECD countries have conducted research projects identifying elements affecting metal health of social members to enhance overall social welfare. Using Korea Welfare Panel Study, this article aims to identify factors underlying the gender differences in depression in Korea. That is, the goal of this article is to examine and determine what variables among socio-economic, health, and cultural variables generate gender differences in depression. For this purpose, we use Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition technique that has been widely applied in many areas in economics. In addition, unconditional quantile regression method is implemented and the decompositions at various percentiles of depression score distribution are performed accordingly. The empirical results show that women report higher levels of depression scores compared to men’s scores and this difference becomes noticeable in higher percentiles of the distribution. According to detailed decomposition, about 55% of the raw difference is accounted for mainly by differences in health status, marital status, household income, and educational attainments.