Data and Code for: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Among Ghana’s Rural Poor Is Effective Regardless of Baseline Mental Distress

Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s) Nathan Barker, Yale University; Gharad Bryan, London School of Economics; Dean Karlan, Northwestern University; Angela Ofori-Atta, University of Ghana Medical School; Christopher Udry, Northwestern University

Version: View help for Version V2

Name	File Type	Size	Last Modified
BBKOAU-CBT_Replication_Files			02/14/2025 06:23:PM

Project Citation:

Barker, Nathan, Bryan, Gharad, Karlan, Dean, Ofori-Atta, Angela, and Udry, Christopher. Data and Code for: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Among Ghana’s Rural Poor Is Effective Regardless of Baseline Mental Distress. Nashville, TN: American Economic Association [publisher], 2025. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2025-02-17. https://doi.org/10.3886/E164481V2

Project Description

Summary: We study the impact of group-based cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for individuals selected from the general population of poor households in rural Ghana (N=7,227). Results from 1-3 months after the program show strong impacts on mental and perceived physical health, cognitive and socioemotional skills, and economic self-perceptions. These effects hold regardless of baseline mental distress. We argue that this is because CBT can improve well-being for a general population of poor individuals through two pathways: reducing vulnerability to deteriorating mental health, and directly increasing cognitive capacity and socioemotional skills.

This project folder contains the data and code needed to replicate the results in this paper.

Funding Sources: Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; National Science Foundation; Wellspring Foundation; Ford Foundation

Scope of Project

Subject Terms: mental health; poverty; cognitive behavioral therapy; scarcity

JEL Classification:
      I15 Health and Economic Development
      I31 General Welfare; Well-Being
      O12 Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development

Geographic Coverage: Ghana

Time Period(s): 1/2016 – 5/2017

Universe: Low-income adults in Northern, Upper East, Ashanti, Bono and Bono East regions of Ghana, between the ages of 18 and 65.

Data Type(s): experimental data; observational data; survey data

Collection Notes: Data was collected by Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) for the randomized evaluation data, and by the Institute of Statistical Social and Economic Research at the University of Ghana, Legon, for the Ghana Socioeconomic Panel Survey data. Full details of sampling are described in Appendix A.

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Published Versions

V2 [2025-02-17]

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