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Daughters, Savings and Household Finances

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  • Wen, Xin
  • Cheng, Zhiming
  • Tani, Massimiliano

Abstract

We explore the link between child gender and household financial decisions within a cultural environment that strongly favours having a son. Using data from the China Household Finance Survey (CHFS), we find that the presence of a daughter is associated with a lower saving rate, consistent with the hypothesis that the relative under-supply of unmarried women generates a less competitive marriage market for families with daughters vs. those with sons. As a result, such families have lower incentives to endow their daughters with bigger asset pools to enhance their marital prospects. The correlation becomes more pronounced as the daughter approaches marriageable age, and it is more common among families where the head has low financial literacy and limited education and lives in rural areas.

Suggested Citation

  • Wen, Xin & Cheng, Zhiming & Tani, Massimiliano, 2024. "Daughters, Savings and Household Finances," GLO Discussion Paper Series 1474, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
  • Handle: RePEc:zbw:glodps:1474
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    daughter; household investment decisions; family savings; marriage market;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D14 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Saving; Personal Finance
    • G11 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Portfolio Choice; Investment Decisions
    • G51 - Financial Economics - - Household Finance - - - Household Savings, Borrowing, Debt, and Wealth
    • J12 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure

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