Peer Effect, Risk-Pooling and Status Seeking: Which Matters to Gift Spending Escalation in Rural China?

Xi Chen and Xiaobo Zhang

No 103643, 2011 Annual Meeting, July 24-26, 2011, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania from Agricultural and Applied Economics Association

Abstract: It has been widely documented that the poor spend a significant proportion of their income on gifts even at the expense of basic consumption. We test three competing explanations to this phenomenon, peer effect, status concern, and risk-pooling, based on a census-type primary household survey in three natural villages in rural China and detailed household records of gifts received in major occasions. The gift giving behavior is largely influenced by peers in the reference groups. Status concern is another key motive for “keeping up with the Joneses” in extending gifts. In particular, the poor with sons spend more on gift giving in proportion to their income than their rich counterparts in response to the tightening marriage market. In contrast, risk pooling does not seem to be a key driver of the observed gift giving patterns. Large windfall income to a large extent triggers the escalation of gift giving behavior.

Keywords: Agricultural and Food Policy; Agricultural Finance; Community/Rural/Urban Development; Consumer/Household Economics; Demand and Price Analysis; Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety; Food Security and Poverty; Institutional and Behavioral Economics; International Development; Public Economics; Research Methods/ Statistical Methods; Risk and Uncertainty (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 39
Date: 2011-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr, nep-net and nep-soc
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:aaea11:103643

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.103643

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