Population policies, demographic structural changes, and the Chinese household saving puzzle

Suqin Ge, Dennis Yang and Junsen Zhang

European Economic Review, 2018, vol. 101, issue C, 181-209

Abstract: Using combined data from population censuses and Urban Household Surveys, we study the effects of demographic structural changes on the rise of household savings in China. Variations in fines across provinces for unauthorized births under the one-child policy and in cohort-specific fertility influenced by the implementation of population control policies are exploited to facilitate identification. We find evidence that older households with fewer adult children saved more, middle-aged households with fewer dependent children experienced increase in savings, and younger households with fewer siblings also saved more. These findings lend support to a simple economic model in which the effects of population control policies are investigated in the context of household saving decisions in China.

Keywords: Household saving; One-child policy; Demographic structure; Cohort analysis; China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E21 J11 J13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (36)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0014292117301721
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
Working Paper: Population Policies, Demographic Structural Changes, and the Chinese Household Saving Puzzle (2012)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:eecrev:v:101:y:2018:i:c:p:181-209

DOI: 10.1016/j.euroecorev.2017.09.008

Access Statistics for this article

European Economic Review is currently edited by T.S. Eicher, A. Imrohoroglu, E. Leeper, J. Oechssler and M. Pesendorfer

More articles in European Economic Review from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().