IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iza/izadps/dp16336.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Debt Relief for the Financially Vulnerable: Impact on Employment, Welfare Receipt, and Mental Health

Author

Listed:
  • de Bruijn, Ernst-Jan

    (Leiden University)

  • Vethaak, Heike

    (University of Leiden)

  • Koning, Pierre

    (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam)

  • Knoef, Marike

    (Tilburg University)

Abstract

We study the labor market and mental health impacts of debt relief among financially vulnerable individuals. We exploit a cutoff rule used by a Dutch welfare office to determine eligibility to debt relief of welfare debts. We use this cutoff as an instrument in both a fuzzy regression discontinuity and instrumented difference-in-difference design. With administrative data, we estimate economically small and insignificant effects of debt relief on employment, earnings, welfare receipt, and medication use for mental health problems. Subgroup analyses suggest that debt relief increases employment among debtors with larger welfare debts. The larger amount of debt relief for this group has probably a stronger potential to improve their overall debt position.

Suggested Citation

  • de Bruijn, Ernst-Jan & Vethaak, Heike & Koning, Pierre & Knoef, Marike, 2023. "Debt Relief for the Financially Vulnerable: Impact on Employment, Welfare Receipt, and Mental Health," IZA Discussion Papers 16336, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp16336
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://docs.iza.org/dp16336.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Will Dobbie & Jae Song, 2015. "Debt Relief and Debtor Outcomes: Measuring the Effects of Consumer Bankruptcy Protection," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 105(3), pages 1272-1311, March.
    2. Esther Duflo, 2001. "Schooling and Labor Market Consequences of School Construction in Indonesia: Evidence from an Unusual Policy Experiment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 91(4), pages 795-813, September.
    3. Sebastian Calonico & Matias D. Cattaneo & Rocio Titiunik, 2014. "Robust data-driven inference in the regression-discontinuity design," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 14(4), pages 909-946, December.
    4. Hannes Schwandt, 2018. "Wealth Shocks and Health Outcomes: Evidence from Stock Market Fluctuations," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 10(4), pages 349-377, October.
    5. Bridges, Sarah & Disney, Richard, 2010. "Debt and depression," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(3), pages 388-403, May.
    6. David Card & Raj Chetty & Andrea Weber, 2007. "Cash-on-Hand and Competing Models of Intertemporal Behavior: New Evidence from the Labor Market," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 122(4), pages 1511-1560.
    7. Matias D. Cattaneo & Rocío Titiunik, 2022. "Regression Discontinuity Designs," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 14(1), pages 821-851, August.
    8. Matias D. Cattaneo & Michael Jansson & Xinwei Ma, 2020. "Simple Local Polynomial Density Estimators," Journal of the American Statistical Association, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 115(531), pages 1449-1455, July.
    9. Christoph Basten & Andreas Fagereng & Kjetil Telle, 2014. "Cash‐on‐hand and the Duration of Job Search: Quasi‐experimental Evidence from Norway," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 0(576), pages 540-568, May.
    10. John Gathergood, 2012. "Debt and Depression: Causal Links and Social Norm Effects," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 122(563), pages 1094-1114, September.
    11. David Cesarini & Erik Lindqvist & Matthew J. Notowidigdo & Robert Östling, 2017. "The Effect of Wealth on Individual and Household Labor Supply: Evidence from Swedish Lotteries," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 107(12), pages 3917-3946, December.
    12. Guido W. Imbens & Donald B. Rubin & Bruce I. Sacerdote, 2001. "Estimating the Effect of Unearned Income on Labor Earnings, Savings, and Consumption: Evidence from a Survey of Lottery Players," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 91(4), pages 778-794, September.
    13. Imbens, Guido W & Angrist, Joshua D, 1994. "Identification and Estimation of Local Average Treatment Effects," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 62(2), pages 467-475, March.
    14. Benjamin J. Keys, 2018. "The Credit Market Consequences of Job Displacement," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 100(3), pages 405-415, July.
    15. Stefano DellaVigna & M. Daniele Paserman, 2005. "Job Search and Impatience," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 23(3), pages 527-588, July.
    16. Song Han & Geng Li, 2011. "Household Borrowing after Personal Bankruptcy," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 43, pages 491-517, March.
    17. Will Dobbie & Jae Song, 2020. "Targeted Debt Relief and the Origins of Financial Distress: Experimental Evidence from Distressed Credit Card Borrowers," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 110(4), pages 984-1018, April.
    18. Tal Gross & Matthew J. Notowidigdo & Jialan Wang, 2020. "The Marginal Propensity to Consume over the Business Cycle," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 12(2), pages 351-384, April.
    19. Sumit Agarwal & Gene Amromin & Itzhak Ben-David & Souphala Chomsisengphet & Tomasz Piskorski & Amit Seru, 2017. "Policy Intervention in Debt Renegotiation: Evidence from the Home Affordable Modification Program," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 125(3), pages 654-712.
    20. Qiyan Ong & Walter Theseira & Irene Y. H. Ng, 2019. "Reducing debt improves psychological functioning and changes decision-making in the poor," Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 116(15), pages 7244-7249, April.
    21. Lee, David S. & Card, David, 2008. "Regression discontinuity inference with specification error," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 142(2), pages 655-674, February.
    22. Hahn, Jinyong & Todd, Petra & Van der Klaauw, Wilbert, 2001. "Identification and Estimation of Treatment Effects with a Regression-Discontinuity Design," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 69(1), pages 201-209, January.
    23. McInerney, Melissa & Mellor, Jennifer M. & Nicholas, Lauren Hersch, 2013. "Recession depression: Mental health effects of the 2008 stock market crash," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(6), pages 1090-1104.
    24. Eleonora Fichera & John Gathergood, 2016. "Do Wealth Shocks Affect Health? New Evidence from the Housing Boom," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 25(S2), pages 57-69, November.
    25. Raj Chetty, 2008. "Erratum: Moral Hazard versus Liquidity and Optimal Unemployment Insurance," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 116(6), pages 1197-1197, December.
    26. Marieke Bos & Emily Breza & Andres Liberman, 2018. "The Labor Market Effects of Credit Market Information," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 31(6), pages 2005-2037.
    27. repec:wly:hlthec:v:25:y:2016:i::p:57-69 is not listed on IDEAS
    28. Peter Ganong & Pascal Noel, 2020. "Liquidity versus Wealth in Household Debt Obligations: Evidence from Housing Policy in the Great Recession," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 110(10), pages 3100-3138, October.
    29. Matias D. Cattaneo & Luke Keele & Rocio Titiunik, 2021. "Covariate Adjustment in Regression Discontinuity Designs," Papers 2110.08410, arXiv.org, revised Aug 2022.
    30. Hojman, Daniel A. & Miranda, Álvaro & Ruiz-Tagle, Jaime, 2016. "Debt trajectories and mental health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 167(C), pages 54-62.
    31. Alyce Adams & Raymond Kluender & Neale Mahoney & Jinglin Wang & Francis Wong & Wesley Yin, 2022. "The Impact of Financial Assistance Programs on Health Care Utilization: Evidence from Kaiser Permanente," American Economic Review: Insights, American Economic Association, vol. 4(3), pages 389-407, September.
    32. Jacelly C. Cespedes & Carlos R. Parra & Clemens Sialm, 2021. "The Effect of Principal Reduction on Household Distress: Evidence from Mortgage Cramdown," NBER Working Papers 28900, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kleiner, Kristoph & Stoffman, Noah & Yonker, Scott E., 2021. "Friends with bankruptcy protection benefits," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 139(2), pages 578-605.
    2. Guido W. Imbens & Jeffrey M. Wooldridge, 2009. "Recent Developments in the Econometrics of Program Evaluation," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 47(1), pages 5-86, March.
    3. Davezies, Laurent & Le Barbanchon, Thomas, 2017. "Regression discontinuity design with continuous measurement error in the running variable," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 200(2), pages 260-281.
    4. Blaise Melly & Rafael Lalive, 2020. "Estimation, Inference, and Interpretation in the Regression Discontinuity Design," Diskussionsschriften dp2016, Universitaet Bern, Departement Volkswirtschaft.
    5. Renata Bottazzi & Serena Trucchi & Matthew Wakefield, 2021. "Labour supply responses to financial wealth shocks: evidence from Italy," Fiscal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 42(2), pages 291-317, June.
    6. Asaf Bernstein, 2021. "Negative Home Equity and Household Labor Supply," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 76(6), pages 2963-2995, December.
    7. Peter Hull & Michal Kolesár & Christopher Walters, 2022. "Labor by design: contributions of David Card, Joshua Angrist, and Guido Imbens," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 124(3), pages 603-645, July.
    8. Meltem Dayioglu & Müşerref Küçükbayrak & Semih Tumen, 2022. "The impact of age-specific minimum wages on youth employment and education: a regression discontinuity analysis," International Journal of Manpower, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 43(6), pages 1352-1377, March.
    9. Konstantinos Tatsiramos & Jan C. Ours, 2014. "Labor Market Effects Of Unemployment Insurance Design," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(2), pages 284-311, April.
    10. Susan Athey & Guido W. Imbens, 2017. "The State of Applied Econometrics: Causality and Policy Evaluation," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 31(2), pages 3-32, Spring.
    11. François Gerard & Miikka Rokkanen & Christoph Rothe, 2020. "Bounds on treatment effects in regression discontinuity designs with a manipulated running variable," Quantitative Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 11(3), pages 839-870, July.
    12. Jeffrey T. Denning & Benjamin M. Marx & Lesley J. Turner, 2019. "ProPelled: The Effects of Grants on Graduation, Earnings, and Welfare," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 11(3), pages 193-224, July.
    13. Gerard, Francois & Rokkanen, Miikka & Rothe, Christoph, 2015. "Identification and Inference in Regression Discontinuity Designs with a Manipulated Running Variable," IZA Discussion Papers 9604, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    14. Matias D. Cattaneo & Rocío Titiunik, 2022. "Regression Discontinuity Designs," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 14(1), pages 821-851, August.
    15. Lynn, Peter & Fumagalli, Laura & Muñoz-Bugarin, Jair, 2021. "Investigating the role of debt advice on borrowers’ well-being. An encouragement study on a new sample of over-indebted people in Britain," ISER Working Paper Series 2021-08, Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    16. Fadlon, Itzik & Nielsen, Torben Heien, 2019. "Household labor supply and the gains from social insurance," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 171(C), pages 18-28.
    17. Li, Han & Li, Jiangyi & Lu, Yi & Xie, Huihua, 2020. "Housing wealth and labor supply: Evidence from a regression discontinuity design," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 183(C).
    18. Lynn, Peter & Fumagalli, Laura & Muñoz-Bugarin, Jair, 2021. "The effect of formal debt advice on financial management and knowledge: insights from a new longitudinal study in Britain," ISER Working Paper Series 2021-09, Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    19. Sumit Agarwal & Slava Mikhed & Barry Scholnick & Man Zhang, 2022. "Reducing Strategic Default in a Financial Crisis," Working Papers 21-36, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.
    20. Cesar Leandro, Julio & Botelho, Delane, 2022. "Consumer over-indebtedness: A review and future research agenda," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 535-551.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    debt relief; welfare debts; welfare recipients; fuzzy regression discontinuity design; instrumented difference-in-difference;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G51 - Financial Economics - - Household Finance - - - Household Savings, Borrowing, Debt, and Wealth
    • I38 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Government Programs; Provision and Effects of Welfare Programs
    • J22 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Time Allocation and Labor Supply
    • J64 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Unemployment: Models, Duration, Incidence, and Job Search
    • J68 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Public Policy

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp16336. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Holger Hinte (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/izaaade.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.