Speaker

Renan Chicarelli Marques
Graduate Student, Sanford School of Public Policy
Duke University

Abstract

Despite growing recognition of its importance for human capital, access to mental healthcare remains limited. In this paper, we examine whether expanding community-based mental health services improves educational outcomes. We study a nationwide mental health reform in Brazil, which replaced hospital-based care with community-based Psychosocial Care Centers (CAPS). To identify the causal effect, we exploit the staggered rollout of these units over the last two decades. Using a difference-in-differences strategy, we find that the expansion of CAPS leads to persistent reductions in dropout rates, improvements in approval rates, and declines in age–grade distortion, with effects particularly pronounced among high school students. Our findings highlight the role of mental healthcare provision in supporting human capital accumulation through educational gains.