Health Literacy, Socio-Cultural Capital, and Household Financial Resilience: Evidence from Indonesia

Abstract

Rising living costs and economic uncertainty threaten household financial resilience in Indonesia. This study analyzes the influence of health literacy and socio-cultural capital on household financial resilience in Indonesia. Using cross-sectional data from the Indonesian Family Life Survey (IFLS) wave 5 conducted in 2014-2015 with 5,269 household observations, this research estimates Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) models with controls for household and head-of-household characteristics. Results indicate that health literacy has a positive and significant relationship with household financial resilience (β=0.142, p<0.01), suggesting that understanding health information contributes to financial planning and health risk management. Socio-cultural capital, proxied through participation in social activities and cultural asset ownership, also associates positively with financial resilience (β=0.098, p<0.05), supporting the role of social networks and mutual assistance norms in economic protection. Household income, head-of-household education, and access to formal healthcare services emerge as other important predictors. These findings extend the human capital and social capital frameworks in the household financial resilience literature in developing countries, with policy implications for integrating health literacy and revitalizing socio-cultural capital as strategies for enhancing household economic resilience in Indonesia.