Individual Debt Relief, Health, and Mortality
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Series
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Speaker(s)Jonas Maibom (Aarhus University, Denmark)
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FieldEmpirical Microeconomics
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LocationTinbergen Institute, room 1.01
Amsterdam -
Date and time
October 07, 2025
15:30 - 16:30
Abstract
We analyze the effects of individual debt relief on health in Denmark using quasi-random assignment of applicants to court trustees with varying admission rates. Consistent with benefits arising from lower stress and better lifestyle, debt relief promotes health slowly, over decades, partly through reductions in major adverse cardiovascular events (heart disease) and reductions in cancer linked to alcohol, smoking, or obesity. There is evidence that debt relief reduces mortality, most visibly for older applicants, who benefit from debt relief as much through better health as through improvements in labor market status.