Los shocks de salud y la vulnerabilidad financiera de la población española a examen

Abstract

Purpose: A health shock could be defined as an adverse and unexpected event that altershousehold income and expenditure flows. Compared to other health problems, theemergency that characterizes shocks can generate an important “psychological alarm”that leads people to make unhealthy financial decisions. This article explores therelationship between health shocks and financial vulnerability (VF) of Spanishhouseholds.Methodology: Using a descriptive quantitative methodology, this paper aims to comparethe level of VF, measured from different approaches, in households with or without healthshocks. To design the VF indicators, we have chosen procedures to synthesizeinformation from a plethora of variables.Findings: The results show a possible positive relationship between household VF andhealth shocks, which could be more intense in objective measures that analyze householdconsumption/savings. An increase in public aid is recommended, prioritizing the mostvulnerable households.Originality: This article contributes to research on household finances by relatingsynthetic indicators of household finances to health shocks. To date, most authors whohave explored the relationship between health and household finances have focused onthe health consequences derived from the absence of resources and/or have analyzedspecific financial decisions.