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Mental health, which is an integral and essential part of health, has long been of little concern in China and has attracted the attention of the public. Previous studies have found that unemployment is a contributing factor affecting mental health. However, there is hardly any rigorous evidence in China thus far, and the underlying mechanism of how unemployment affects mental health is poorly understood. Using data collected from the China Family Panel Studies survey (2010–2018), we applied fixed-effects models to examine how unemployment affects residents’ mental health and the possible influencing channels. These findings support the idea that unemployment negatively affects the mental health of Chinese interviewees. Frequency of physical exercise mediates the relationship between unemployment and mental health. Further analysis revealed that medical insurance had a moderating effect on the mental health of the unemployed. The study summarizes the main findings and provides possible policy implications.

This paper investigates the existence of long-run relationship between unemployment and several key macroeconomic variables in Malaysia, Singapore, and the Philippines. The Johansen–Juselius cointegration method confirms the existence of a stationary long-run cointegration relationship between unemployment and its determinants in all three countries. Exports and foreign direct investment are important determinants of unemployment in Malaysia. In the Philippines, government spending and exports are inversely related to unemployment. In Singapore, only exports appeared as a significant factor in determining unemployment. The results show that the speed of adjustment following a shock is more rapid in Singapore compared to the other two ASEAN countries.

Inventories and price changes are correlated. The inverse relation is most obvious in housing where inventories build in low-demand markets and shrink in high-demand markets. This is a puzzle. Symmetry of information among buyers and sellers would seem to imply that sellers would change their reservation value by the amount that buyers change their offers. Because there is heterogeneity among buyers in the valuation of a given house, sellers set prices strategically. When demand falls, sellers rationally lower their prices, but not by enough to keep the probability of sale constant. As a result, inventories grow.

Several researchers have recently shown an interaction between macroeconomic variables and stock returns. Most of these studies have concentrated on interest rates and inflation. These and other variables, of course, have an influence on the debt markets as well. Other variables that can influence the debt and equity markets include employment information. On the first Friday of each month the government releases its employment report for the previous month. Strong growth in employment generally bodes well for economic output and growth in the economy. Any inflation and interest rate implications of a strong employment report will ultimately be reflected in bond and stock prices. It is generally observed that if payroll employment growth is moderately strong prices in the bond market drop while prices in the stock market rise. The empirical evidence presented supports these observations. This study documents the reaction of the bond and the stock markets in response to the employment reports. As the unemployment rate tends to rise so do the bond and the stock markets.