Bank presence and health

Abstract This article examines whether more bank presence in underserved areas can improve households’ health. Leveraging a 2005 Reserve Bank of India policy and a regression discontinuity design, I demonstrate that 5 years post-policy, treatment districts have twenty-seven more bank branches than control districts. This expansion increases household employment and access to savings accounts, enhancing health investments. On the healthcare supply side, hospitals utilize more credit and expand services. Six years after the policy, households in treatment districts are nineteen percentage points less likely to suffer from non-chronic illnesses in a given month. Chronic diseases remain unaffected.