Digital Transitions and Sustainable Futures: Family Structure’s Impact on Chinese Consumer Saving Choices and Marketing Implications

Wenxin Fu, Qijun Jiang (), Jiahao Ni and Yihong Xue
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Wenxin Fu: College of Marine Biological Resources and Management, Shanghai Ocean University, Shanghai 201306, China
Qijun Jiang: School of Economics and Management, Shanghai Ocean University, Shanghai 201306, China
Jiahao Ni: College of Engineering Science and Technology, Shanghai Ocean University, Shanghai 201306, China
Yihong Xue: College of Engineering Science and Technology, Shanghai Ocean University, Shanghai 201306, China

Sustainability, 2025, vol. 17, issue 13, 1-30

Abstract: Family structure has long been regarded as an important determinant of household saving, yet the empirical evidence for developing economies remains limited. Using the 2018–2022 panels of the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS), a nationwide survey that follows 16,519 households across three waves, the present study investigates how family size, the elderly share, and the child share jointly shape saving behavior. A household fixed effects framework is employed to control for time-invariant heterogeneity, followed by a sequential endogeneity strategy: external-shock instruments are tested and rejected, lagged two-stage least squares implement internal instruments, and a dynamic System-GMM model is estimated to capture saving persistence. Robustness checks include province-by-year fixed effects, inverse probability weighting for attrition, balanced-panel replication, alternative variable definitions, lag structures, and sample filters. Family size raises the saving rate by 4.6 percentage points in the preferred dynamic specification ( p < 0.01). The elderly ratio remains insignificant throughout, whereas the child ratio exerts a negative but model-sensitive association. A three-path mediation analysis indicates that approximately 26 percent of the total family size effect operates through scale economy savings on quasi-fixed expenses, 19 percent is offset by resource dilution pressure, and less than 1 percent flows through a precautionary saving channel linked to income volatility. These findings extend the resource dilution literature by quantifying the relative strength of competing mechanisms in a middle-income context and showing that cost-sharing economies dominate child-related dilution for most households. Policy discussion highlights the importance of public childcare subsidies and targeted credit access for rural parents, whose saving capacity is the most constrained by additional children. The study also demonstrates that fixed effects estimates of family structure can be upward-biased unless dynamic saving behavior and internal instruments are considered.

Keywords: household saving behavior; sustainable consumer choices; digital transformation; family structure; population aging; sustainable marketing; urban–rural disparities; China; CFPS; sustainable development goals (SDGs) (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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