The Impact of Financial Inclusion on Mental Health

Joseph Ajefu; Ayse Demir; Hour Haghpanahan

doi:10.1016/j.ssmph.2020.100630

The Impact of Financial Inclusion on Mental Health

Joseph Ajefu^*, Ayse Demir, Hour Haghpanahan

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

53 Citations (Scopus)

116 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

This paper examines the impact of financial inclusion on the mental health of heads of household in Nigeria. The study employed data from the 2015/2016 Nigerian General Household Survey (GHS), matched with georeferenced data concerning financial services obtained from the Insight2Impact (i2i) GIS interface. The results indicate that financial inclusion has a strong positive impact on mental health. The study used a robust instrumental variable method, in which a household’s distance from the nearest financial institution was used as the instrument for financial inclusion. In addition, it identified the potential channels through which financial inclusion can influence mental health, including: (1) food expenditure; (2) remittances; and (3) risk-coping mechanisms. The findings of this study reinforce growing evidence for the benefits of financial inclusion for alleviating depression symptoms.

Original language	English
Article number	100630
Pages (from-to)	1-7
Number of pages	7
Journal	SSM - Population Health
Volume	11
Early online date	11 Jul 2020
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmph.2020.100630
Publication status	Published - 1 Aug 2020

Keywords

Financial inclusion
Mental health
Nigeria

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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10.1016/j.ssmph.2020.100630Licence: CC BY-NC-ND

Accepted Manuscript_SSM_Population HealthAccepted author manuscript, 315 KBLicence: CC BY-NC-ND
1-s2.0-S2352827320302676-mainFinal published version, 429 KBLicence: CC BY-NC-ND

Cite this

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AB - This paper examines the impact of financial inclusion on the mental health of heads of household in Nigeria. The study employed data from the 2015/2016 Nigerian General Household Survey (GHS), matched with georeferenced data concerning financial services obtained from the Insight2Impact (i2i) GIS interface. The results indicate that financial inclusion has a strong positive impact on mental health. The study used a robust instrumental variable method, in which a household’s distance from the nearest financial institution was used as the instrument for financial inclusion. In addition, it identified the potential channels through which financial inclusion can influence mental health, including: (1) food expenditure; (2) remittances; and (3) risk-coping mechanisms. The findings of this study reinforce growing evidence for the benefits of financial inclusion for alleviating depression symptoms.

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KW - Mental health

KW - Nigeria

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The Impact of Financial Inclusion on Mental Health

Abstract

Keywords

UN SDGs

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