IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/aph/ajpbhl/10.2105-ajph.2015.302671_5.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Flu and finances: Influenza outbreaks and loan defaults in US cities, 2004-2012

Author

Listed:
  • Houle, J.N.
  • Collins, J.M.
  • Schmeiser, M.D.

Abstract

Objectives. We examined the association between influenza outbreaks in 83 metropolitan areas and credit card and mortgage defaults, as measured in quarterly zip code-level credit data over the period of 2004 to 2012. Methods. We used ordinary least squares, fixed effects, and 2-stage least squares instrumental variables regression strategies to examine the relationship between influenza-related Google searches and 30-, 60-, and 90-day credit card and mortgage delinquency rates. Results. We found that a proxy for influenza outbreaks is associated with a small but statistically significant increase in credit card and mortgage default rates, net of other factors. These effects are largest for 90-day defaults, suggesting that influenza outbreaks have a disproportionate impact on vulnerable borrowers who are already behind on their payments. Conclusions. Overall, it appears there is a relationship between exogenous health shocks (such as influenza) and credit default. The results suggest that consumer finances could benefit from policies that aim to reduce the financial shocks of illness, particularly for vulnerable borrowers.

Suggested Citation

  • Houle, J.N. & Collins, J.M. & Schmeiser, M.D., 2015. "Flu and finances: Influenza outbreaks and loan defaults in US cities, 2004-2012," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 105(9), pages 75-80.
    • Handle: RePEc:aph:ajpbhl:10.2105/ajph.2015.302671_5
    DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2015.302671
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.2105/AJPH.2015.302671
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.2105/AJPH.2015.302671?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Gong, Di & Jiang, Tao & Lu, Liping, 2021. "Pandemic and bank lending: Evidence from the 2009 H1N1 pandemic," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 39(C).
    2. Swensen, Isaac D. & Urban, Carly, 2023. "Literature Review on the Effect of Physical and Mental Health on Financial Well-Being," IZA Policy Papers 198, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Gold, Sarah & Wagner, Brandon, 2022. "Acute care utilization and housing hardships in American children," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 136(C).
    4. Bialowolski, Piotr & Weziak-Bialowolska, Dorota & Lee, Matthew T. & Chen, Ying & VanderWeele, Tyler J. & McNeely, Eileen, 2021. "The role of financial conditions for physical and mental health. Evidence from a longitudinal survey and insurance claims data," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 281(C).
    5. Gill, Balbinder Singh, 2023. "Health uninsurance premium and mortgage interest rates," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:aph:ajpbhl:10.2105/ajph.2015.302671_5. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Christopher F Baum (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.apha.org .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.