Current global research trends on the impact of economic inequality on workers' mental health: A bibliometric analysis approach

Abstract

This paper employs a bibliometric method to investigate worldwide research trends on the nexus of economic inequality and the mental well-being of workers between 2014 and 2024. The evidence gathered from the Scopus databases enabled the examination of 396 papers from 238 publishing sources. The outcomes of the analysis determine four significant thematic clusters that are central to the results: depression, community effects, family effects, and the pandemic. The analysis shows that, as is typically the case with research output concentration, there is a significant concentration of research activity in developed economies, with the leading publications being from the United States, United Kingdom, and China. Publication trends indicate substantial growth during the COVID-19 pandemic, with a peak in 2020. Some of the emerging issues of importance that this research investigates include the impact of social class on influencing the health of workers, which is significantly shaped by working conditions, mental health, and, more recently, the impact of the pandemic. The greatest contribution of this study to knowledge is the explanation of a set of interrelated problems that capture the complexities of the relationship between economic inequality and the mental health of workers under the conditions of developing economies and different work environments.