How Does a Health Insurance Program Covering 500 Million Poor Impact Credit Market Outcomes?

I study the impact of the world’s largest publicly funded health insurance plan for the poor on credit markets. India launched a health insurance plan that covered 500 million beneficiaries. The fact that opposition-ruled states did not implement the program for political reasons allows me to compare border districts of implemented and nonimplemented states within a difference-in-differences framework. I find that loan delinquency reduced significantly in implemented districts. Increased liquidity for loan repayment seems to be the mechanism at work. I rule out the federal-level ruling party’s influence as an explanation.

This paper was accepted by Kay Giesecke, finance.

Supplemental Material: The online appendix and data files are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2023.01039.