Heterogeneous Credit Impacts on Health Care Spending of the Poor in Peri-Urban Areas, Vietnam: Quantile Treatment Effect Estimation

Abstract

Quantile treatment effects are estimated to study the impacts of household credit access on health spending by poor households in one District of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. There are significant positive effects of credit on the health budget shares of households with low health care spending. In contrast, when an average treatment effect is estimated, there is no discernible impact of credit access on health spending. Hence, typical approaches to studying heterogeneous credit impacts that only consider between-group differences and not differences over the distribution of outcomes may miss some heterogeneity of interest to policymakers.