健康冲击、数字普惠金融与家庭消费

基于中国家庭金融调查(CHFS)数据和"北京大学数字普惠金融指数",分析健康冲击对家庭消费的影响,以及数字普惠金融在其中所起的作用。基于固定效应模型的实证结果表明,健康冲击显著降低了家庭的非医疗消费支出,但数字普惠金融能有效地减轻这种影响;同时就分指标而言,数字普惠金融指标体系一级维度中的覆盖广度和使用深度,二级维度中的信贷、保险、货币基金以及支付这四个子指标均显著地平滑了冲击下的家庭消费。就作用机制而言,数字普惠金融主要通过缓解家庭流动性约束和强化非正式社交网络来帮助家庭应对健康冲击对消费的影响。异质性分析的回归结果显示,健康冲击对中西部地区、户主受教育水平较低以及金融素养水平较低的家庭影响更大,同时这种影响还与冲击的程度正相关,进而数字普惠金融的积极作用在这部分家庭中表现得更为明显。文章的研究结论进一步阐述了数字普惠金融发展对改善金融包容性的重要现实意义,并在微观层面上解释了数字普惠金融发展对改善家庭福利、防止因病致贫返贫的积极作用。

Health Shock,Digital Financial Inclusion and Household Consumption

Based on the data of China Household Survey and Digital Finance Research of Peking University, this paper investigates the impact of health shock on household consumption and whether digital inclusive finance development can lessen the impact. The regression results based on the panel fixed effect model show that health shock has a significant negative impact on household non-medical consumption and digital inclusive finance development can significantly smooth this fluctuation. At the same time, the coverage of digital inclusive financial development, the depth of use and its three sub-indicators: credit, insurance, payment and investment also perform the mitigative effect. As far as the mechanism is concerned, digital inclusive finance mainly helps families cope with the impact of health impact on consumption by alleviating family liquidity constraints and strengthening informal social networks. The regression results of heterogeneity analysis show that households who live in the central and western regions and whose heads have lower education level and finer financial literacy tend to suffer more from health shock while they can benefit more from digital inclusive financial development. The conclusion of this paper further affirms the important role of digital inclusive finance development to improve inclusiveness as well as to enhance family welfare and prevent returning to poverty due to illness.