IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ssi/jouesi/v8y2021i4p622-640.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Borrowing for health, sustainability, credit card use and ownership: a study of 74 countries

Author

Listed:
  • Suwastika Naidu

    (University of the South Pacific, Fiji)

  • Fang Zhao

    (Staffordshire University, United Kingdom)

  • Atishwar Pandaram

    (University of the South Pacific, Fiji)

  • Anand Chand

    (University of the South Pacific, Fiji)

  • Arvind Patel

    (University of the South Pacific, Fiji)

Abstract

With the rising cost of healthcare, most households are resorting to out-of-pocket financing or borrowing to finance the high cost of health care. Intuitively, healthcare's rising cost is a global concern and is subject to a thorough economic debate. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 3 focuses on health care financing for all ages to promote everyone's healthy lifestyle. There are two objectives of this study, and these are as follows: (1) Examine the relationship between borrowing for health or medical purposes and credit card use and ownership, and (2) Explore the significant gender differences concerning borrowing for health or medical purposes. Data for this study was collected from the Global Findex Database and analyzed using the Eviews8 and Microsoft Excel software. The findings from this study confirmed that borrowing for health or medical purposes, primary education, or less (% age 15+) has a statistically significant impact on credit card ownership and usage in high-income countries. There was no relationship of this nature evident in the case of low-income countries. There are significant differences between borrowing for health or medical reasons between males and females in Austria and Lithuania. Both Austria and Lithuania are high-income countries, but in the case of low-income countries, significant gender differences were found for Madagascar and Nepal. This study is timely and has contributed immensely to the existing literature.

Suggested Citation

  • Suwastika Naidu & Fang Zhao & Atishwar Pandaram & Anand Chand & Arvind Patel, 2021. "Borrowing for health, sustainability, credit card use and ownership: a study of 74 countries," Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Issues, VsI Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Center, vol. 8(4), pages 622-640, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:ssi:jouesi:v:8:y:2021:i:4:p:622-640
    DOI: 10.9770/jesi.2021.8.4(38)
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://jssidoi.org/jesi/uploads/articles/32/Naidu_Borrowing_for_health_sustainability_credit_card_use_and_ownership_a_study_of_74_countries.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://jssidoi.org/jesi/article/844
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.9770/jesi.2021.8.4(38)?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Angela C. Lyons & Tansel Yilmazer, 2005. "Health and Financial Strain: Evidence from the Survey of Consumer Finances," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 71(4), pages 873-890, April.
    2. Jing Jian Xiao & Chunsheng Tao, 2020. "Consumer finance/household finance: the definition and scope," China Finance Review International, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 11(1), pages 1-25, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jinhee Kim & Swarn Chatterjee, 2019. "Student Loans, Health, and Life Satisfaction of US Households: Evidence from a Panel Study," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 40(1), pages 36-50, March.
    2. Ketema, Mengistu & Bauer, Siegfried, 2011. "Determinants of Manure and Fertilizer Applications in Eastern Highlands of Ethiopia," Quarterly Journal of International Agriculture, Humboldt-Universitaat zu Berlin, vol. 50(3), pages 1-16.
    3. Averett, Susan L. & Smith, Julie K., 2014. "Financial hardship and obesity," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 15(C), pages 201-212.
    4. Raslan Alzuabi & Sarah Brown & Daniel Gray & Mark N Harris & Christopher Spencer, 2022. "Household saving, health, and healthcare utilization in Japan [Stature, obesity, and portfolio choice]," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 74(2), pages 473-497.
    5. Noonan, Kelly & Corman, Hope & Reichman, Nancy E., 2016. "Effects of maternal depression on family food insecurity," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 22(C), pages 201-215.
    6. Patryk Babiarz & Richard Widdows & Tansel Yilmazer, 2013. "Borrowing To Cope With Adverse Health Events: Liquidity Constraints, Insurance Coverage, And Unsecured Debt," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 22(10), pages 1177-1198, October.
    7. Blázquez, Maite & Budría, Santiago & Moro-Egido, Ana I., 2020. "Over-indebtedness and age: The effects on individual health," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    8. Haitham Mohamed Elsaid, 2021. "A review of literature directions regarding the impact of fintech firms on the banking industry," Qualitative Research in Financial Markets, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 15(5), pages 693-711, October.
    9. Yilmazer, Tansel & Babiarz, Patryk & Liu, Fen, 2015. "The impact of diminished housing wealth on health in the United States: Evidence from the Great Recession," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 234-241.
    10. Lei Lu & Jianxing Wei & Weixing Wu & Yi Zhou, 2023. "Pricing strategies in BigTech lending: Evidence from China," Financial Management, Financial Management Association International, vol. 52(2), pages 333-374, June.
    11. Leonardo Becchetti & Giuseppina Gianfreda, 2008. "When consumption heals producers: the effect of fair trade on marginalised producers’ health and productivity," Working Papers 86, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
    12. Patryk Babiarz & Tansel Yilmazer, 2017. "The impact of adverse health events on consumption: Understanding the mediating effect of income transfers, wealth, and health insurance," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(12), pages 1743-1758, December.
    13. Staudigel, Matthias, 2015. "A soft pillow for hard times: Effects of economic insecurity on body weight in transitional Russia," 2015 AAEA & WAEA Joint Annual Meeting, July 26-28, San Francisco, California 205189, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    14. Nurul Shahnaz Mahdzan & Rozaimah Zainudin & Mohd Edil Abd. Sukor & Fauzi Zainir & Wan Marhaini Wan Ahmad, 2019. "Determinants of Subjective Financial Well-Being Across Three Different Household Income Groups in Malaysia," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 146(3), pages 699-726, December.
    15. Maite Blázquez & Santiago Budría, 2018. "The Effects of Over-indebtedness on Individual Health," Hacienda Pública Española / Review of Public Economics, IEF, vol. 227(4), pages 103-131, December.
    16. Pak, Tae-Young & Kim, GwanSeon, 2017. "The impact of Medicare Part D on cognitive functioning at older ages," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 193(C), pages 118-126.
    17. Lucia F. Dunn & Ida A. Mirzaie, 2023. "Gender Differences in Consumer Debt Stress: Impacts on Job Performance, Family Life and Health," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 44(3), pages 550-567, September.
    18. Butrica, Barbara A. & Karamcheva, Nadia S, 2020. "Is Rising Household Debt Affecting Retirement Decisions?," IZA Discussion Papers 13182, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    19. Averett, Susan L. & Smith, Julie K., 2012. "Indebted and Overweight: The Link Between Weight and Household Debt," IZA Discussion Papers 6898, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    20. Tami Gurley-Calvez & Josephine Lugovskyy, 2019. "The role of entrepreneurial risk in financial portfolio allocation," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 53(4), pages 839-858, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    healthcare; rising cost; low-income countries; high-income countries;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I12 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Behavior
    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health
    • I38 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Government Programs; Provision and Effects of Welfare Programs

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:ssi:jouesi:v:8:y:2021:i:4:p:622-640. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: Manuela Tvaronaviciene (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    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.