The One-Child Policy and Household Savings in China

Keyu Jin and Nicolas Coeurdacier
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Keyu Jin: London School of Economics

No 790, 2013 Meeting Papers from Society for Economic Dynamics

Abstract: This paper analyzes the impact of the 'one child policy' in China on its household saving behavior. First, it develops a life-cycle model with endogenous fertility, intergenerational transfers and human capital accumulation. We show a macroeconomic and a microeconomic channel of a fall in fertility on raising aggregate household saving: at the macroeconomic level, the population composition shifts initially towards the middle-aged—the high savers of the economy. At the microeconomic level, (1) expenditures of children fall—despite higher education investment in each child—as quantity substitutes for quality; (2) middle-aged save additionally for retirement in anticipation of reduced transfers from their only child. Second, our quantitative model implies policy-induced changes in aggregate savings and age-saving profiles broadly consistent with estimates from Chinese household-level data. Third, an empirical study using the birth of twins as a source of exogenous increase in fertility is shown to support the micro-economic channels we highlight. Overall, our estimation suggests that the policy is able to account for 30% to 50% of the rise in household savings rate since its implementation in 1980.

Date: 2013
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dem, nep-dge, nep-gro, nep-mac and nep-tra
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (15)

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