Mental health, subjective well-being, and household health investment

IF 7.4 2区经济学 Q1 BUSINESS, FINANCE

Finance Research Letters Pub Date : 2024-11-15 DOI:10.1016/j.frl.2024.106479

Xinjian Wang , Xuyang Jiao , Jiang Zhang , Ling Huang

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Understanding how psychological factors influence health behaviors remains a critical gap in health economics research, particularly in rapidly developing economies like China. While studies have examined economic determinants of health investment, the role of mental well-being in shaping health expenditure decisions remains underexplored, especially across different income groups. Using the China Family Panel Studies 2020 dataset (n=8,843), we employ regression analyses with instrumental variables and heterogeneity tests to investigate how mental health affects household health investment patterns. Our findings reveal that better mental health significantly increases health-related expenditures, with stronger effects among lower-income households. Subjective well-being partially mediates this relationship, while socioeconomic factors, particularly education and household registration status, show varying impacts across income levels. These results suggest that psychological well-being plays a crucial role in health investment decisions, especially for resource-constrained households, highlighting the need for income-sensitive health promotion strategies in developing economies.

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心理健康、主观幸福感和家庭健康投资

了解心理因素如何影响健康行为仍然是卫生经济学研究中的一个重要空白，尤其是在像中国这样快速发展的经济体。虽然已有研究对健康投资的经济决定因素进行了研究，但对心理健康在影响健康支出决策中的作用，尤其是不同收入群体的健康支出决策中的作用的研究仍然不足。利用《中国家庭面板研究 2020》数据集（n=8843），我们采用工具变量回归分析和异质性检验来研究心理健康如何影响家庭健康投资模式。我们的研究结果表明，心理健康水平越高，与健康相关的支出就越高，对低收入家庭的影响更大。主观幸福感在一定程度上调节了这种关系，而社会经济因素，尤其是教育和户籍状况，则在不同收入水平的家庭中显示出不同的影响。这些结果表明，心理健康在健康投资决策中起着至关重要的作用，尤其是对资源有限的家庭而言，这凸显了发展中经济体对收入敏感的健康促进战略的必要性。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Finance Research Letters BUSINESS, FINANCE-

CiteScore

11.10

自引率

14.40%

发文量

863

期刊介绍： Finance Research Letters welcomes submissions across all areas of finance, aiming for rapid publication of significant new findings. The journal particularly encourages papers that provide insight into the replicability of established results, examine the cross-national applicability of previous findings, challenge existing methodologies, or demonstrate methodological contingencies. Papers are invited in the following areas: Actuarial studies Alternative investments Asset Pricing Bankruptcy and liquidation Banks and other Depository Institutions Behavioral and experimental finance Bibliometric and Scientometric studies of finance Capital budgeting and corporate investment Capital markets and accounting Capital structure and payout policy Commodities Contagion, crises and interdependence Corporate governance Credit and fixed income markets and instruments Derivatives Emerging markets Energy Finance and Energy Markets Financial Econometrics Financial History Financial intermediation and money markets Financial markets and marketplaces Financial Mathematics and Econophysics Financial Regulation and Law Forecasting Frontier market studies International Finance Market efficiency, event studies Mergers, acquisitions and the market for corporate control Micro Finance Institutions Microstructure Non-bank Financial Institutions Personal Finance Portfolio choice and investing Real estate finance and investing Risk SME, Family and Entrepreneurial Finance