INTRODUCTION

The past quarter-century has seen research on the economic impacts of mental illness flourish. Innovations in measurement and the release of several community-based and often nationally representative data sets containing valid and reliable diagnostic information have enabled researchers to make substantial advances in understanding the myriad ways that mental illness impacts the economic lives of the ill and their families. Among the most interesting and persistent findings in this literature is that mental illness affects women and men differently. Not only do women and men have very different rates of prevalence for various diseases, but mental illness is also commonly found to have different effects in their economic lives.