IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/rjapxx/v23y2018i1p78-98.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The impact of universal health coverage on households’ consumption and savings in Thailand

Author

Listed:
  • Phatta Kirdruang
  • Paul Glewwe

Abstract

This paper studies the impact of Thailand's Universal Health Coverage Scheme (UCS) on households' consumption and savings by using a synthetic panel data approach. Using difference-in-differences estimation, it finds that, in the short run, the UCS had little or no impact on either savings or consumption expenditures. In the long run, the UCS still had no effect on savings, but there is some evidence of an increase in consumption. These effects are generally consistent with economic theory. The provision of healthcare coverage at little or no cost to previously uninsured households has an income effect that will increase both savings and consumption and a risk reduction effect that will reduce precautionary savings and thus increase consumption. These two effects on savings are of opposite sign and appear to cancel each other out, while both effects on consumption are positive and so appear to increase consumption, at least in the long run.

Suggested Citation

  • Phatta Kirdruang & Paul Glewwe, 2018. "The impact of universal health coverage on households’ consumption and savings in Thailand," Journal of the Asia Pacific Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(1), pages 78-98, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:rjapxx:v:23:y:2018:i:1:p:78-98
    DOI: 10.1080/13547860.2017.1359893
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/13547860.2017.1359893
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/13547860.2017.1359893?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Masoud Behzadifar & Maryam Saran & Meysam Behzadifar & Mariano Martini & Nicola Luigi Bragazzi, 2021. "The ‘Health Transformation Plan’ in Iran: A policy to achieve universal health coverage in slums and informal settlement areas," International Journal of Health Planning and Management, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(2), pages 267-272, March.
    2. 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.
    3. Sameera Awawda & Mohammad Abu-Zaineh, 2019. "An Operationalizing Theoretical Framework for the Analysis of Universal Health Coverage Reforms: First Test on an Archetype Developing Economy," Working Papers halshs-02009858, HAL.
    4. Tuan, Truong Anh & Nam, Pham Khanh & Loan, Le Thanh, 2022. "The impact of health insurance on households’ financial choices: Evidence from Vietnam," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(3), pages 264-276.
    5. Lianjie Wang & Yao Tang, 2024. "RETRACTED ARTICLE: The impact of long-term care insurance on household consumption and sustainability among aged people in China," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 57(2), pages 1-32, April.
    6. Sameera Awawda & Mohammad Abu-Zaineh, 2019. "An Operationalizing Theoretical Framework for the Analysis of Universal Health Coverage Reforms: First Test on an Archetype Developing Economy," Working Papers halshs-02009858, HAL.

    More about this item

    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:taf:rjapxx:v:23:y:2018:i:1:p:78-98. 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: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/rjap .

    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.