論 文 の 要 約

氏名PONGPAT PUTTHINUN

論文題目

Three essays on the impact of financial literacy on risky healthbehaviors
人々の健康行動に金融リテラシーが与えるインパクトに関する論集

論文の要約
This dissertation aims to provide evidence in relation to the impact offinancial literacy on different risky health behaviors: gambling, smoking, andalcohol consumption in Japan and the United States. It comprises three essays
which examine whether financial literacy could be an effective means to reducing
gambling frequency, smoking, and daily alcohol consumption in two countries
with different cultural contexts. The essays hypothesize that financially literateindividuals, who have the ability to make more rational decisions, are less likely
to be frequent gamblers, smokers, or daily drinkers. Using data from the 2010
Preference Parameters Study (PPS) of Osaka University, the probit regression
results show that the impact of financial literacy on these risky health behaviors
is mixed.
The first essay, titled “Financial Literacy and Gambling Behavior in theUnited States” (Watanapongvanich et al., 2021a), finds that financial literacy
generally has an insignificant effect on gambling frequency in the United States.
The study argues that the availability and ease of access to gambling
opportunities make people behave irrationally and could lead them to gamble more
frequently. The second essay, titled “Financial Literacy, Financial Education, andSmoking Behavior: Evidence from Japan” (Watanapongvanich et al., 2021b),
finds that financial literacy has a negative and strongly significant impact on
smoking behavior among the Japanese population. The findings confirm that
financial literacy as a rational decision-making tool can provide people with anability to think and behave rationally, thereby reducing the tendency to engage
in smoking. The third essay, titled “Financial Literacy and Alcohol Drinking
Behavior: Evidence from Japan” (Putthinun et al., 2021), finds that financial

literacy has an insignificant association with daily alcohol consumption among
the Japanese population. The study argues that prevailing social beliefs towards
the beneficial effects of alcohol on health and sociability may have lessened theimpact of financial literacy on alcohol drinking behavior. Similar to the study on
gambling behavior in the United States, the third essay further argues that theavailability and ease of drinking opportunities likely override people’s rationality
and tempt them to consume alcohol frequently. The findings from the three
essays demonstrate that gender, age, household income, and risky behaviors are
the most common factors that can predict the frequency of gambling behavior in
the United States and smoking and alcohol drinking behaviors in Japan.
Given the mixed results among the three studies, this dissertation
provides evidence that financial literacy as a rational decision-making tool may
not serve as an effective approach to help curtail risky health behaviors acrossdifferent cultural settings.

References

Watanapongvanich, S., Khan, M. S. R., Putthinun, P., Ono, S., & Kadoya, Y.
(2021a). Financial Literacy and Gambling Behavior in the UnitedStates. Journal of Gambling Studies.
Watanapongvanich, S., Khan, M. S. R., Putthinun, P., Ono, S., & Kadoya, Y.
(2021b). Financial Literacy, Financial Education, and Smoking Behavior:
Evidence from Japan. Frontiers in Public Health, 8, 612976.
Putthinun, P., Watanapongvanich, S., Khan, M. S. R., & Kadoya, Y. (2021).
Financial Literacy and Alcohol Drinking Behavior: Evidence from Japan.
Sustainability, 13(16), 8858.