Cash holdings and health shocks

Abstract

We are the first to investigate how health shocks relate to cash holdings. Using three waves of the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study over the period 2013–2018, we document that, for middle-aged and elderly people living in rural China, the onset of an acute health condition is associated with a 3.0 percentage point higher probability of holding only cash as a safe asset, and a 2.3 percentage point higher proportion of safe assets held in the form of cash. These results are robust to using different samples and estimation methods. We also find that ex-post reimbursement of medical expenses and lack of bank accessibility may drive the association between health shocks and cash holdings.