Saving: the role of marriagw (Wei and Zhang, 2011

Question 1

What is the sex ratio? How has it developed in China? Why may this have increased savings rates?

Answer 1

Number of men/women in premarital cohort

Has increased over time tf more difficult for men to get married

As it rises parents may increase savings to increase marriage prospects for sons

Question 2

2 ways NOT having a son may affect parents?

Answer 2

They may not save as much to take advantage of future son-in-law’s higher saving rate

OR may save more to avoid erosion of daughters bargaining power in their marriage

Question 3

Correlation since 1980?

Answer 3

Both sex ratios for marriage age youths and savings rates have been rising

Question 4

Stat of sex ratio at birth?

Answer 4

2007 sex ratio at birth roughly 124boys:100girls

Question 5

Statistic regarding personal reasons for saving?

Answer 5

92.2% of households with a son report at least one factor directly related to their son as their primary/secondary reason for saving (5.8% higher than for daughter households

Question 6

Statistic showing that higher level of wealth -> greater marriage prospects? (urban and rural)

Answer 6

Rural areas: for high quality households, less likely to still have a son living at home (daughter marriage is unrelated to house quality)

Urban areas: families that are household owners much less likely to to have an unmarried son at home

Question 7

Data used in this study?

Answer 7

CHIP, 122 counties, 70 cities

Question 8

Similarity in data between urban and rural areas?

Answer 8

Households with a son have higher avg savings than those without a son

Question 9

For 3 person households, what is the effect of the local sex ratio on the household saving rate? (2)

Answer 9

Sons: strong positive
Daughters: parameter for sex ratio is insignificant

Question 10

What do results show regarding the local sex ratio in urban areas and household saving rates in urban areas? What is he evidence for this?

Answer 10

a has a strong positive effect on b for both households with a son and with a daughter (larger for sons)

this is likely due to the additional finding that:
increased sex ratio -> increased comp for HH with a son -> increasing house costs (and tf higher savings to pay for this)

evidence is that a higher sex ratio is associated with larger avg house size and higher house value

Question 11

Finding for role of marriage across provinces?

Answer 11

although coefficients for sex ratios are are +ve and significant in all regions, local savings rates are higher in regions with more unbalanced sex ratios

Question 12

Since saving is unspent income, it could be argued that the saving my be a passive rather than an active action. Tf how did the study ensure it was an active action?

Answer 12

They did research on banking deposits acting as saving; this showed that the sex ratio coefficient is still always positive and significant for households with a son

Question 13

2 conclusions?

Answer 13

1) Savings by identical households with a son are higher in regions with higher local sex ratios
2) Imbalance for premarital age cohort is likely to be even higher in the next decade