Housing price and household savings rates: evidence from China

This article investigates the effect of house prices on household savings rates in urban China employing the 2002 and 2007 data of the Chinese Households Income Project (CHIP). We find that the rapid appreciation of house prices cannot explain high Chinese households’ savings rates and the rising of Chinese savings rates. On the contrary, we find a negative relationship between house prices and household savings rates for home renters and homeowners. We do not find any evidence of ‘savings for housing purchase’ for young home renters when house prices increase. Their savings rates declined during housing market booms in recent 10?years. Savings rates of homeowners possessing multiple housing have decreased more because of ‘the pure housing wealth effects.’     

Chinese household saving and dependent children: Theory and evidence

This paper examines the impact of family size on household saving. We first study a theoretical life-cycle model that includes finite lifetimes and saving for retirement and in which parents care about the consumption by their dependent children. The model implies a negative relationship between the number of dependent children in the family and the household saving rate. Then, we test the model's implications using new survey data on household finances in China. We use the differential enforcement of the one-child policy across counties to address the possible endogeneity between household saving and fertility decisions in a two-stage least squares Tobit regression. We find that Chinese families with fewer dependent children have significantly higher saving rates. The data yields several additional insights on household saving patterns. Households with college-age children have lower saving rates, and households residing in urban areas have higher saving rates and a lower ratio of education expenditures to income. However, having an additional child reduces saving rates more for households in urban areas than in rural areas. Our regressions also indicate that saving rates vary with age and tend to be higher for households with more workers, higher education, better health, and more assets.     

Tax Incidence in Vietnam*

This paper examines the incidence of taxation in Vietnam, using data from the Living Standards Survey of 1997–1998 and an input–output matrix for 1997. The tax system in 1998 was slightly progressive, taking the equivalent of 7.8percent of spending for households in the lowest, and 10.3percent from households in the highest expenditure quintile. The replacement of the turnover tax by a value‐added tax in January 1999 made the system marginally more progressive, and the falling importance of taxes on trade has had a negligible effect on the overall incidence of the tax system. The tax system is progressive overall because business income taxes fall mainly on better‐off households; and low‐income households rely heavily on home consumption, which is untaxed. Against this, agricultural taxes and fees are highly regressive. The recent phasing out of the agricultural land use tax is making the tax system more progressive; however, efforts since 2004 to limit price increases for motor fuels have effectively provided a relatively greater subsidy to rich than to poor households.     

Financial literacy,housing value and household financial market participation: Evidence from urban China

Using data from the 2012 consumer finance survey in China, we extend the literature on household finance by examining the effects of both financial literacy and housing value on household financial market participation, the role of which has been examined separately in the existing literature. The results show that financial literacy significantly improves the probability of household financial market participation, while the housing value has an obvious “crowding-out effect” on household financial market participation in urban China. Further research finds that the role of financial literacy in household financial market participation in households with a low housing value is stronger than that in households with a high housing value. Furthermore, the study of the regional differences shows that among households with a high housing value, financial literacy plays a more significant role in household bond market participation in less-developed cities. Among households with a low housing value, improvement in financial literacy plays a more significant role in household fund market participation in less-developed cities and under-developed cities. Our findings remain robust after alleviating potential bias due to endogenous problems by applying the instrumental variable (IV) method and propensity score matching (PSM) method. Finally, the paper proposes corresponding policy recommendations.     

How do poverty alleviation coordinators help the impoverished in rural China? -- Evidence from the Chinese poor population tracking dataset

The loss of targeting efficiency due to information asymmetry is a longstanding problem in aid programs. China's Targeted Poverty Alleviation (TPA) program addresses this problem by assigning local government officials to individual impoverished households. These officials, referred to as poverty alleviation coordinators (PACs), are required to pay frequent home visits to the assigned households and to deploy policy resources for poverty reduction. The program is costly in terms of human resources because the officials also have regular duties in a variety of departments. We investigate the effects of the PAC system on poverty alleviation and explore the mechanisms of the effects. Based on the Chinese Poor Population Tracking Dataset and econometric analysis, we find that the households with a larger income increase are those whose PACs work in a department that has the type of resources needed by the household. This indicates that a good match between the resource and the need could enhance the effect of the TPA program. In addition, PACs at a higher position in the governance structure show a larger income increase in their assigned households, which is expected, because a higher position could have more resources to deploy. These findings shed light on role of institutional arrangements in alleviating information asymmetry in poverty reduction programs.     

Relationship between the mode of land redistribution,tenure security and agricultural credit use in KwaZulu-Natal

Data collected from interviews with new landowners in KwaZulu-Natal in 1999 show that households on four government-assisted projects had less tenure security than households that acquired land via private transactions. Households in government-assisted projects also used less agricultural credit and had less liquidity and less wealth. The probability of households using agricultural credit increased with more secure tenure, more household wealth (number of durable goods), higher liquidity and higher levels of household education. It is recommended that more emphasis be placed on redistributing land through the private market and encouraging the creation of management committees or joint enterprises to utilise the land settled by large groups of beneficiaries. This would be a first step towards making tenure more secure, most notably in the government land reform projects. More secure tenure would improve the creditworthiness of emerging farmers, thereby creating incentives for investing in improvements and complementary inputs to raise agricultural performance.     

The Impact of SNAP Vehicle Asset Limits on Household Asset Allocation

Beginning in 2001, states were given the authority to formulate their own rules on how vehicles are counted toward the asset limit in the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program. We exploit differences in timing of the state vehicle asset policy changes to identify their effect on vehicle assets and debts, car ownership, liquid assets holdings, as well as non‐housing wealth. We estimate difference‐in‐differences and household fixed effects specifications and find that liberalizing vehicle asset rules increases vehicle assets of households with a high ex ante probability of program participation. Households also take on more debt to finance their vehicles. The increase in car value can be attributed primarily to less educated single parents who already owned a car before the policy change buying more expensive cars.     

中国家庭股市资产价值变动对居民消费的影响——来自CHFS的微观证据

近年来针对股市资产价值变动与消费关系的研究多采用宏观数据,难以揭示股市资产价值变动对居民消费影响的细节。为克服以上缺陷,文章利用中国家庭金融调查（CHFS）数据分析股市资产价值变动对中国居民消费的影响。实证结果表明：（1）股市资产价值变动对居民消费的影响总体较弱,其中市值变动的财富效应主要体现在改善性消费上,而对饮食等日常必须消费和奢侈品消费影响较小,这可能与我国居民的收入结构和投资方式有关;（2）随着年龄增长,居民的收入分布和资产配置倾向发生改变,股市资产价值变动对不同年龄居民消费的影响呈现先减小后增大的U型分布。研究结论揭示了股市资产价值变动对居民消费影响的分布特征,为今后股市改革方向提供了建议。     

The expansion of higher education and household saving in China

We examine whether access to higher education impacts household saving rates. A 2-period model of household saving decisions demonstrates why increased college opportunities induce households with children to save more. We examine this theory using survey data from Chinese households during the unprecedented education expansion. Using estimates of the change in the expected probability of college attendance, we estimate the effect on household saving rates by comparing households before and after the reform. We find that a 10-percentage point increase in the probability of going to college raises the saving rate by 5.9 percentage points.     

Consumption based estimates of urban Chinese growth

This paper estimates the household income growth rates implied by food demand in a sample of urban Chinese households in 1993–2005. Our estimates, based on Engel curves for food consumption, indicate an average per capita income growth of 6.8% per year in 1993–2005. This figure is slightly larger than the 5.9% per year obtained by deflating nominal incomes by the CPI. We attribute this discrepancy to a small bias in the CPI, which is of a similar magnitude to the one often associated with the CPI in the United States. This result supports the view that Chinese price statistics are reliable. Our estimates indicate stronger gains among poorer households, suggesting that urban inflation up to 2005 in China was “pro-poor,” in the sense that the increase in the cost of living for poorer households was smaller than for the average one.     

Social roles, human capital, and the intrahousehold division of labor: evidence from Pakistan

Using detailed data from rural Pakistan, this paper investigateswhether human capital, learning-by-doing, gender, and familystatus affect the division of labor within households. Resultssuggest the presence of returns to individual specializationin all farm, non-farm, and home based activities. The intrahouseholddivision of labor is influenced by comparative advantage basedon human capital and by long-lasting returns to learning-by-doing,but we also find evidence of a separate effect of gender andfamily status. Households seem to operate as hierarchies withsexually segregated spheres of activity. The head of householdand his or her spouse provide most of the labor within theirrespective spheres of influence; other members work less. Whenpresent in the household, daughters-in-law work systematicallyharder than daughters of comparable age, height, and education.Other findings of interest are that there are increasing returnsto scale in most household chores, that larger households workmore off farm, and that better educated individuals enjoy moreleisure.     

减税降费有助于缩小中国家庭经济不平等吗——来自2011年个税改革的证据

共同富裕要求我们从多维视角审视物质层面的不平等，在当前减税降费的大背景下，个人所得税是调控收入分配的关键手段。文章从收入、消费和财产所构成的多维经济不平等视角出发，对2011年个人所得税改革调节家庭经济不平等的效应进行了探讨。研究发现：个人所得税改革的公平效应是显著的，使经济不平等程度下降了13.64%，其中对城市地区的调节效应更强，对低福利阶层和高福利阶层的影响相对显著。在作用机制方面，个人所得税改革主要影响收入不平等，并进一步作用于消费不平等和财产不平等，最终影响经济不平等。为充分发挥个人所得税的调节效应，应逐步提高个人所得税比重，补充和细化专项附加扣除项目与标准，逐步以家庭为基础征收个税。     

E-commerce and Consumption Inequality in China

Consumption inequality may impede economic development and hinder the achievement of common prosperity. Using three waves of the China Family Panel Studies from 2014 to 2018, this paper investigated the impact of e-commerce on consumption inequality, as measured by the Kakwani index. The results indicate that e-commerce can reduce household consumption inequality. A mechanism analysis shows that e-commerce can narrow household income inequality, increase the purchasing power of low-income households, and promote the consumption of households with limited access to offline markets, thereby reducing the consumption gap. A heterogeneity analysis suggests that the positive role of e-commerce in reducing consumption inequality can be more significant among vulnerable households, such as households with elderly members and less-educated households. E-commerce can have varying impacts on consumption inequality across different subcategories of household expenditure, with the greatest impact seen in entertainment and education expenditure. These findings provide new evidence for the role of e-commerce in reducing consumption inequality in the digital economy, and the implications of this are discussed.     

健康冲击、社会资本与农户经济脆弱性——基于“CHIP2013”数据的实证分析

健康人力资本在农村经济中发挥着重要作用,农户健康受损时,会通过"劳动效应"、"挤占效应"和"情感效应"影响其经济脆弱性,而社会资本作为一种非正式机制,在血缘、地缘与业缘关系的连接下,通过及时获取信息与资源等对农户经济产生影响。文章利用"中国家庭收入调查2013"数据实证分析了健康冲击和社会资本对农户经济脆弱性的影响及作用机制。通过倾向得分匹配（PSM）和处理效应模型解决内生偏误问题、建立中介效应模型后,回归结果显示：健康冲击会通过挤占效应和情感效应两条渠道机制对农户经济产生负向影响,社会资本分项指标则通过信任渠道机制对农户经济产生正向影响;男性户主更易因遭受健康冲击而陷入经济脆弱困境,处于劳动年龄的户主在利用社会资本缓解经济脆弱性方面更具优势;而社会资本在缓解健康冲击对农户经济脆弱性中的作用并不显著,一个可能的原因是在农村社会中,社会资本等非正式机制逐渐被正式医疗保障机制所替代。在稳健性检验中,构造基于预期贫困定义的贫困脆弱性指标（VEP）进行替换变量回归,进一步证实所得结论。文章的政策涵义在于,应加强对于农户健康风险的管理,并重新挖掘社会资本在农村经济发展中的作用,从而缓解经济脆弱性,阻断贫困。     

Household Behaviour under Market Failures: How Natural Resource Management in Agriculture Promotes Livestock Production in the Sahel

Improved water harvesting and soil erosion control using theremarkably simple practice of contour stone bunding is shownto increase grain yields by 41% in low rainfall regions of BurkinaFaso. Empirical results show that yield increases in food cropshelp food-buying farm households import-substitute in food consumption,reduce livestock production and increase seasonal migration,which is more compatible with seasonal agriculture than withthe yearlong livestock activity. Self-sufficient households,by contrast, can take advantage of higher yields to free resourcesfrom food production and allocate these to expand their livestockeconomy, thus benefiting more from the region's comparativeadvantage. We also show that greater effectiveness in cooperationin the management of common property resources helps increaseincome derived from livestock for all categories of households.However, not all forms of cooperation are effective. When cooperationis only formal, individual activities such as crops, non-agriculturalemployment and seasonal migration are pursued, as opposed tolivestock activities that rely on effective community managementof common property resources.     

Spatial Correlation in Household Choices in Rural Indonesia*

Many household choices in developing economies are correlated with choices of nearby households, because nearby locations have unobserved factors in common and households and their neighbors interact. However, models recognizing these spatial correlations are rarely used because few surveys give exact household locations. In the present paper, we use unusual data from rural Indonesia, where distances between households can be measured, to examine spatial effects in equations for non‐farm enterprises' share of household incomes and food's share of total household budgets. Our results indicate that ignoring spatial correlations in household choices might cause bias and inferential errors and could distort recommended policy interventions aiming to raise living standards in rural Asia.     

Vulnerability of households to health shocks: an Indonesian study

We examine the effect of illness and injury shocks on work hours and household consumption in Indonesia. Using indices of activities of daily living to measure health shocks, we find that both labour hours and household consumption are influenced by health shocks to household heads. Further, farm households seem to be more seriously affected than non-farm households by health shocks. However, the magnitude of the health effect on household consumption is small, implying that even farm households are well protected on average by the presence of formal and informal risk-coping mechanisms.     

Income volatility,household leverage,and consumption in Korea

Using the micro household data in Korea, we examine the effects of income volatility changes on households’ leverage and consumption. We found that households who faced increased income volatility lowered their leverage ratio. A one standard deviation increase in income volatility was associated with 1.3 ∼ 1.5 percentage point decrease in the leverage ratio. The effects of income volatility changes on households’ leverage choices varied with households’ borrowing constraints and other socioeconomic backgrounds. We also found that when faced with enlarged income uncertainty, households’ income coefficients on consumption were lowered. The income coefficient of average households was estimated to be around 0.16, while households with increased income volatility were around 0.12. In particular, similar to the relations in leverage ratio changes, consumptions among potentially borrowing-constrained households and those with ‘net-short’ position in real estate assets were more affected by increases in income volatility. This can be understood that households smoothed their consumption during the periods of increased income volatility, and this was shown in the smaller consumption elasticity on income. This can be attributed to the fact that faced with increased income volatility, households lower the risk exposure of their financial net wealth by lowering their leverage ratio.     

The impact of housing reform on durables consumption in China

The privatization of public housing in the 1990s in China had a considerable impact on the wealth of urban households. This paper analyzes the effects of the wealth change on household consumption of nine durable goods in urban China, including air conditioner, computer, color TV, washing machine, refrigerator, camera, microwave, telephone, and VCD/DVD. Our results show that households affected by the housing reform had a significantly higher level of durables consumption than those unaffected by the program. In the short term, their probabilities of purchasing air conditioners and computers increase by 2%–10% and 2%–7% respectively. In the long term, the effect on air conditioner consumption increases over time during our study period but effect on computer does not increase monotonically. Further, the effects of the housing reform on the consumptions of more commonly owned durables, such as color TV, washing machine, refrigerator, and telephone have diminished over time.     

Re-estimating gender differences in income in South Africa: The implications of equivalence scales

Most studies of poverty and inequality in South Africa measure individual welfare by deflating total household resources, such as income, by household size. This per-capita method makes no adjustments for the different consumption needs of children or for household economies of scale. However, in addition to being more likely to live in households where average per-capita household income is lower compared with men, we show that women in South Africa also live in significantly larger households which include more children. These gendered differences in household composition are driven to a large degree by low rates of co-residency between men and women. We therefore investigate how adjusting household resources for the presence of children and economies of scale affects measures of the gender gap in income.