Title
Does debt affect health? Cross country evidence on the debt-health nexus
Date Issued
01 April 2015
Access level
open access
Resource Type
journal article
Author(s)
Clayton M.
Wilson J.O.S.
University of Essex
Publisher(s)
Elsevier Ltd
Abstract
We investigate the relationship between aggregate household debt and aggregate health outcomes across 17 European countries over the period 1995 to 2012. Using a dataset of country-level standardized and objective measures of household debt, health outcomes and a rich set of control variables, we estimate an instrumental variable (GMM) model to address possible reverse causality concerns. We find that aggregate household debt affects health outcomes, and that this varies by the maturity of debt. Both short and medium-term debt has a positive effect on health outcomes. Long-term unsecured debt and mortgage debt are associated with poorer health outcomes. These findings are robust after controlling for alternative measures of health and debt. Overall, the results suggest that aggregate household debt is an important determinant of aggregate health outcomes across countries.
Start page
51
End page
58
Volume
130
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Sociología Economía
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-84922495978
PubMed ID
Source
Social Science and Medicine
ISSN of the container
02779536
Sources of information: Directorio de Producción Científica Scopus