Bank presence and health

Kim Fe Cramer

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: This paper demonstrates that increasing bank presence in underserved areas can substantially improve households’ health. I apply a regression discontinuity design to a policy of the Reserve Bank of India. Six years after the policy introduction, treatment districts have 19% more branches than control districts. Households’ probability of suffering from a non-chronic disease in a given month is 36% lower. I show evidence that two understudied aspects of banking play a role: banks provide health insurance to households and credit to hospitals. In equilibrium, I observe an increase in health care demand and supply.

Keywords: financial development; banks; health; insurance; credit (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: G21 I10 O16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 81 pages
Date: 2023-04-19
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ban, nep-dev, nep-fdg, nep-inv and nep-mfd
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ehl:lserod:119194

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