Duc Hong Vo

Purpose: This study aims to examine the effect of financial inclusion on subjective well-being by utilizing the dataset of 3,000 observations in two main surveys where required data are available.Design/Methodology/Approach: Our study utilizes both Oster’s (2019) method and kinky least squares (KLS) techniques to ensure the robustness of the empirical results. The data cover 3,000 observations in two main surveys.Findings: Our findings show that financial inclusion positively influences Vietnamese subjective well-being, with a one-standard-deviation increase in the financial inclusion index leads to a 0.192 unit increase in subjective well-being. Moderation analysis indicates that there is a regional effect in our findings, meaning that financial inclusion improves subjective well-being in all regions including the North region, the Central region, and the South region. However, the effect is smallest in the South region where the North region experiences the largest effect of financial inclusion on well-being. We also explore three mediating channels through which financial inclusion enhances subjective well-being across regions in Vietnam, namely income rank, the possibility of coming up with emergency funds, and educational attainmentOriginality/Value: Financial inclusion has generally been considered key pillar in supporting sustainable economy growth and social transformation in Vietnam by 2030. Exploring how financial inclusion influences subjective well-being is particularly important in Vietnam, a country undergoing rapid economic transformation and facing persistent social challenges that may affect the subjective well-being of Vietnamese citizens.

This study examines whether financial literacy is associated with reduced gambling risk using a large representative sample of the Australian population in the Household, Income and Labor Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey. We analyzed four waves of biennial data from 2016 to 2022 that contain financial literacy and gambling modules, covering 13,358 respondents aged 15 and above, corresponding to 21,140 person-year observations. We found that higher financial literacy was associated with lower gambling risk measured by the Problem Gambling Severity Index (PGSI). Instrumental variable regressions were used to address endogeneity and to strengthen the case for a causal relationship. However, financial literacy was not related to the gambling expenditure and the number of gambling activities respondents participated in. Mediation analysis suggested that locus of control might serve as a channel through which financial literacy mitigates the adverse consequences of gambling. The findings implied that financial knowledge may help reducing gambling-related harm, potentially via perceived control, even if it does not reduce participation or spending.

The impact of financial inclusion on health have largely remained underexplored in the existing literature, particularly in the ASEAN nations. This study is conducted to examine this impact using a sample of 14,815 observations collected from (i) the Gallup World Poll and the (ii) the World Bank Global Findex databases. Various estimation techniques, including (i)Lewbel’s (2012) IV estimations, and mediation analysis are utilized in this study. The empirical results indicate that financial inclusion positively affects health outcome, proxied by the Personal Health Index. Our mediation analysis confirms that income, education, food, and housing security emerge as key mediating channels through which financial inclusion improves health. The positive impact from financial inclusion on health outcome remains robust after accounting for a between-country variation using multilevel modeling and addressing potential endogeneity using Lewbel’s instrumental variable estimation. A country-specific analysis confirms that financial inclusion significantly improves health outcome in five ASEAN countries, including Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Myanmar.

This study examines the causal impacts of financial literacy on current and future life satisfaction. We use a cross‐sectional dataset combined from two unique datasets, including the S&P's Global Financial Literacy Survey and Gallup World Poll for 138 countries. Our results indicate that financial literacy is positively associated with life satisfaction. Unlike previous studies, we establish the causal impacts of financial literacy on life satisfaction using four novel instrument‐free approaches, and the instrumental variable estimation, to address endogeneity. In addition, our results reveal that the effect of financial literacy on future life satisfaction is larger than on the current one.

Previous studies have offered static evidence of free‐riding behavior in military alliances; however, dynamic evidence remains largely unexplored. To address this gap, this study employs a time‐varying parameter vector autoregressive (TVP‐VAR) connectedness approach. This method provides dynamic insights, allowing us to identify unusual shifts in military spending dependence among NATO member states over time. Using this method, we observe a significant anomaly in March 2014, when Crimea's administrative authority shifted from Ukraine to Russia. Our findings indicate that this event substantially curtailed free‐rider behavior in military expenditure among NATO members. Furthermore, consistent with the existing literature, the results show a marked decline in free‐riding behavior following 1975, attributable to the implementation of the flexible response doctrine.

Reducing household energy consumption is generally considered a key force in limiting the adverse effects of human beings on climate change. As such, understanding the socio-demographic determinants of household electricity consumption across Vietnamese households plays an important role. However, this understanding has largely been neglected in the existing literature, particularly for Vietnam. This study focuses on understanding the role of socio-demographic factors electricity consumption across Vietnamese households using two waves of the Vietnamese Household Living Standards Surveys (VHLSS) in 2012 and 2020. The three-stage least squares estimation has been used to address the endogeneity problem and examines the reverse causality between income and electricity consumption of the households. The results show that household income and the educational level of the household head are the two factors with the most significant impacts on household electricity consumption. Electricity consumption expenditure also significantly and positively impacts household income. The economies of scale are confirmed between the number of household members and electricity consumption, meaning that larger families consume more electricity. In addition, our findings show that the differences in electricity consumption between the richest and poorest household groups increased sharply in 2020. These key findings call for policies to support disadvantaged households in Vietnam and that the current structure of the electricity tariff has failed to capture the disproportional level of electricity consumption between the richest and poorest groups of Vietnamese households.

This study examines the impact of government support on mental health in Vietnam using Vietnam’s Households Living Standard Surveys in 2018 and 2020 and a probit estimator. Characteristics of the households and the households’ heads are also examined. We find that government support tends to worsen mental health in Vietnam, implying the current Government support is insufficient to improve mental health in households, particularly during stressful times during the COVID-19 pandemic. Female-headed households appear to experience a more significant mental health deterioration compared to their counterparts, whereas households living in urban areas are mentally struggling compared to those living in rural areas. Our results also indicate that mental health deterioration exhibits an inverted U-shaped relationship with age, implying mental health appears to be a significant issue for young individuals in Vietnam. Household incomes and assets act as a buffer against mental health deterioration. These findings support the view that mental health deterioration appears to emerge from financial distress. Households suffer mental health deterioration if their financial circumstances are not improved and support from the government is insufficient.

Financial inclusion has recently emerged as an important pillar for sustainable economic growth, poverty eradication, and social transformation globally. While the effects of institutional quality on financial inclusion have been widely investigated, their long-term effects have largely been underexplored, particularly for the Asia–Pacific region. We are especially interested in these long-term effects because institutional reforms require time for implementation and their impacts on various socioeconomic issues are only gradually observed. This paper has developed a new index of institutional quality for countries in the Asia–Pacific region from 2004 to 2020 using the principal component analysis. We estimate the long-term effects of institutional quality on financial inclusion using long-term estimators, including the augmented mean group and the common correlated effects mean group estimators. In our study, institutional quality is proxied by the new index developed in this paper and then by each of the five fundamental aspects of institutional quality: (i) business freedom, (ii) regulatory quality, (iii) investment freedom, (iv) government effectiveness, and (v) the rule of law. We find that improved institutional quality is fundamental to achieving financial inclusion in the region. These effects are particularly prominent in high-income countries in the Asia–Pacific region. However, a closer look at these long-term effects reveals that this effect is conditional on the income level. Interestingly, this long-term effect can be established for high-income countries such as Australia and Japan but not for Singapore. In addition, in the case of middle-income countries, the long-term effect can be confirmed for countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines but not for Thailand and Vietnam. Our results show that institutional reform, albeit very important, should not be considered the only fundamental pillar ensuring financial inclusion, sustainable economic growth, and social transformation in the long run.