ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Health Economics
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1580812
This article is part of the Research TopicIntegrating Economics into Population Health: Assessing Policies and OutcomesView all 3 articles
The Impact of Prudent Financial Policies on the Urban-Rural Household Health Expenditure Disparity: Evidence from China
Provisionally accepted
- 1School of Government, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, China
- 2Zhejiang Business College, Hangzhou, China
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With the rapid development of China's financial markets, the impact of proactive financial policies on household health investment has drawn significant attention, yet little is known about the effects of prudent financial policies on household health expenditures. We examine the effects of a prudent financial policy called the New Asset Management Regulation (NAMR). The policy aims to reduce systemic financial risks by breaking rigid payments and regulating shadow banking. The introduction of the policy expands research in this field. Methods: This study employs the intensity difference-in-differences (intensity DID) approach, utilizing data from the China Family Panel Studies (2012-2020), to assess the effects of the NAMR. We further construct interaction terms between household existing capital (both tangible and intangible) and the key explanatory variables to test the heterogeneity of the baseline results.Results: The results show that the regulation significantly affects rural households' medical expenditures (with a 20.5% decrease in guaranteed investment and a 1.2% increase in out-of-pocket payments), but has no significant impact on urban households. Heterogeneity analysis shows urban households' health investment reduces health spending by 0.067%, moderated negatively by tangible assets (property) and positively by intangible assets (business experience, social ties). For households with business experience, a 10% treatment intensity increase raises health spending by 5.4%. A simultaneous 10% treatment intensity and 1-unit transport spending increase boosts health expenditures by 5.8%, revealing how asset types shape urban-rural health spending differences. Furthermore, post-implementation, urban households' education expenditures significantly increased, while migrant households experienced a rise in guaranteed investment and a decline in out-of-pocket payments, though not statistically significant. Discussion: This study highlights the multifaceted impact of prudent financial policies on household health expenditures across urban and rural areas, underscoring the need for policy formulation to
Keywords: healthcare, Urban-rural disparities, Out of pocket expenditures, prudent financial policies, China
Received: 21 Feb 2025; Accepted: 16 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zou, Dai and Li. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Xijie Li, School of Government, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, 510275, Guangdong Province, China
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