Dr. Hai Le

This study examines the effects of urbanization on household health expenditure. Using a unique bi-annually household-level dataset from 2012–2016 from Vietnam, we obtain key findings as follows. To mitigate possible endogeneity concerns, we utilize a two-stage least squares regression (2SLS) approach, employing the development of information and communication (ICT) infrastructure at the province level as an instrumental variable (IV). The key findings can be summarized as follows. First, urbanization significantly reduces Vietnamese households’ inpatient and outpatient health expenses. Second, the self-treatment expenses of households increase as the process of urbanization advances. In addition, we perform various robustness checks, encompassing different measures of urbanization, the use of lag of urbanization as an additional IV, and the plausible exogenous IV. The outcomes derived from these rigorous sensitivity analyses substantiate the reliability and consistency of our key results. Finally, we propose different ways to explain these results, including health insurance expenses and household income.

About Me

Dr. Hai Le is currently employed as a lecturer at Swinburne University of Technology, Vietnam Campus, while simultaneously serving as a project consultant at the Asian Development Bank and an adjunct faculty member at the College of Arts & Sciences, VinUniversity. Prior to joining Swinburne, he dedicated two fruitful years as a Research Associate at ADBI. Before that, he spent over 2 years as a lecturer at the Banking Academy in Hanoi, Vietnam. He received both his doctorate and master's degrees in Economics from Kyoto University's Graduate School of Economics, where he also worked as a teaching and research assistant. He holds a BA in Banking and Finance from Banking Academy of Vietnam with summa cum laude. His research interests include monetary economics, Bayesian econometrics, and applied economics, with a particular focus on emerging economies. Additionally, he has a strong interest in energy economics and environmental economics. He published his papers in several good journals including Journal of Economic Studies, Applied Economics, Journal of Cleaner Production, Sustainable Production and Consumption, Finance Research Letters, Applied Energy, Social Indicators Research, and Economic Research.

Dr. Hai Le

Dr. Hai Le

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