金融市场参与、风险异质性与家庭幸福

本文研究了金融市场参与对家庭幸福的影响。理论分析显示,金融市场参与通过风险和收益对家庭幸福产生影响。本文运用2015年中国家庭金融调查数据,实证研究了金融市场参与对家庭幸福的影响。为克服内生性,本文选取工具变量,运用极大似然估计发现,家庭参与金融市场会显著提高家庭幸福的可能性。从投资风险的角度进一步研究发现,金融投资的风险异质性对家庭幸福有显著影响:家庭参与低风险金融投资会显著提高家庭幸福,参与高风险金融投资会显著降低家庭幸福。从民间借贷参与中,本文发现家庭参与民间借出款会显著提高家庭幸福的可能性。民间借贷投资风险对家庭幸福的异质性影响也是存在的,高风险借出款对家庭幸福有显著的负向影响。本文为理解家庭金融投资行为与幸福的关系提供了新的证据,可为构建和谐社会提供有益参考。

Financial Market Participation,Risk Heterogeneity,and Household Well-Being

Well-being is closely related to utility, and the literature is rich in factors that can influence well-being. Studies tend to use the terms “well-being” and “happiness” interchangeably. Some scholars point out that economic growth is unlikely to lead to happiness, but that economic crises, inflation, and unemployment reduce household well-being. From the perspective of income, some studies find that increased income does not significantly improve well-being, which is known as the happiness-income paradox. In this regard, scholars have proposed research perspectives such as an inverted U relationship between income and happiness, the effects of absolute and relative income on happiness, and the impact of income inequality on happiness. There are also studies on how the characteristics of individuals such as marriage, health, unemployment, social network relationships, and values affect happiness.
Nevertheless, there is scant evidence of the impact of household investment on well-being. Several studies find that household financial assets, property, liabilities, and investment performance affect household well-being, and that household assets can have a significant positive effect on happiness. However, the literature has not considered the impact of financial market participation or the risk level of financial investments on household well-being. Our research question is whether financial market participation can improve household well-being and whether the riskiness of financial investments has a heterogeneous impact.
First, we establish a theoretical model. Through our theoretical analysis, we find that financial market participation can affect household well-being through risks and returns. We then test the impact of financial market participation on household well-being using the 2015 China Household Finance Survey (CHFS) data. The CHFS includes detailed information on household assets and financial wealth, liabilities and credit constraints, income and insurance, and intergenerational transfers, demographics, and employment. We define household well-being through the CHFS questionnaire on the subjective well-being of respondents. We define households as participants in the financial market if they have demand deposits, time deposits, stocks, funds, financial products, bonds, derivatives, non-renminbi assets, gold, other financial assets, or any loans to others.
To address endogeneity concerns, we use an instrumental variable and employ maximum likelihood estimation. The results show that participation in the financial market will significantly increase the possibility of household well-being. When households participate in the financial market, the possibility of household well-being will be improved by 18.77%. We further find that the risk heterogeneity of financial investments has a significant impact on household well-being: participation in low-risk financial investment increases the likelihood of household well-being by 20.56%, whereas high-risk financial investment significantly reduces it by 17.75%.
We also find that participation in private lending significantly increases the likelihood of household well-being by 44.47%. The heterogeneous impact of private lending investment risk on well-being also exists. High-risk lending has a significant negative impact on happiness. This paper also finds that when households lend money to relatives, the likelihood of household well-being increases significantly by 7.58%.
This paper provides new evidence for understanding the relationship between household financial investment behavior and happiness, and also provides a reference for the construction of a harmonious society.