Financial assets and happiness: evidence from the China Household Finance Survey

Qiao, Yajie; Cai, Yunchao

doi:10.1080/13504851.2021.1992340

Cited by 5 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…Grounded in prior research, this study controls for individual, household, and city-level characteristics to mitigate omitted variable bias (Luttmer, 2005;Dynan and Ravina, 2007;Campante and Yanagizawa-Drott, 2015;Ding et al, 2021;Qiao and Cai, 2023). The individual-level characteristic variables include: Gender, with males coded as 1 and females as 0; Age, where respondents outside the age range of 15-65 years are excluded based on survey guidelines; Marital status, with married individuals coded as 1 and others as 0; Ethnicity, with Han ethnicity coded as 1 and ethnic minorities as 0; Self-rated health status, respondents who consider themselves as "healthy" or "very healthy" are coded as 1, while others are coded as 0.; Political affiliation, with party members coded as 1 and non-party members as 0; Weekly working hours; Education, with values ranging from 1 to 9 representing no schooling, primary or private school, junior high school, regular high school, vocational high school, technical school, secondary specialized school, junior college, and undergraduate or higher, respectively.…”

Section: Other Controlsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Buddhist culture as a safeguard for the subjective happiness of Chinese residents: mitigating anxiety regarding housing prices, unemployment, and inequality

Tan,

Fang,

Shi

et al. 2023

Front. Psychol.

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IntroductionThis study examines whether Buddhist culture in China can safeguard the subjective happiness of residents by mitigating the detrimental impact of adversity. Considering Chinese traditional culture and referencing Baidu Search Index data, we focus on three sources of anxiety that are currently troubling Chinese residents: housing prices, unemployment, and inequality.MethodsWe conduct logit regressiontoinvestigate the mitigating impact of Buddhist culture on anxiety. The frequency of droughts and floods that occurred during the Ming and Qing dynasties are employed as instrumental variables for the local density of Buddhist culture to avoid endogeneity problems.ResultsEmpirical analysis based on microdata shows that Chinese Buddhist culture demonstrates the ability to alleviate the negative effects of housing price pressures, unemployment anxiety, and perceived inequality on subjective well-being. Mechanism analyses reveal that Chinese Buddhist culture plays a role in ameliorating the adverse impacts of housing and unemployment pressures on factors such as job satisfaction, physical health status, social trust, and expectations of future social standing. Moreover, it works to reduce inclinations toward social comparisons, thereby acting as a safeguard for happiness. Heterogeneity analysis shows that this insurance effect is more pronounced among vulnerable groups, including those in rural areas, middle-aged and elderly demographics, individuals with fewer social connections, lower social security coverage, and suboptimal health conditions.DiscussionThis study expands the landscape of happiness economics research and provides novel evidence about the correlation between religion and happiness. Psychotherapists may draw on certain aspects of religious philosophy in addressing mental disorders. From a governmental perspective, there is potential to effectively steer religious culture towards fostering social harmony and promoting economic development.

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Section: Other Controlsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Buddhist culture as a safeguard for the subjective happiness of Chinese residents: mitigating anxiety regarding housing prices, unemployment, and inequality

Tan,

Fang,

Shi

et al. 2023

Front. Psychol.

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show abstract

“…In China, in addition to the investment in housing, households tend to participate in financial markets and invest in FA. According to the China Household Finance Survey conducted in 2011 and 2019, FA have increased to the second largest component of total household assets (Qiao and Cai, 2023;Yuan et al, 2022). Since FA generally have a higher return on investment than other assets (Langley, 2021), they have a more influential role in the accumulation of households' income and wealth than HA in China (Piketty et al, 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The causes of income inequality in urban China: A household assets perspective

Liu,

He,

Dong

2024

Chinese Journal of Sociology

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Despite income inequality in China being a heated topic in scholarship and public discussion, little research has explored the trend in income inequality since the mid-2010s or focused on the implications of household assets on income inequality. Using pooled cross-sectional data from the Chinese General Social Survey, we estimate income inequality at the household level from 2012 to 2021 and further examine the effects of two types of household assets (housing assets (HA) and financial assets (FA)) on income inequality in urban China, as well as the moderating effects of socioeconomic status (SES) and regional marketization. The results indicate that national income inequality was sustained at a high level between 2012 and 2021, while income inequality in urban households was higher than that in rural households. Both HA and FA were positively related to income inequality, and the latter assets had a stronger effect on income inequality. The association between the two types of household assets and income inequality strengthened along with an increase in family SES and regional marketization levels. The study highlights that FA, relative to HA, are a more important contributor to income inequality among urban households, thus extending the literature on inequality and social stratification in contemporary China by revealing the causes underlying rising income inequality from the household assets perspective.

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What Makes People Happy with their Lives in Developing Countries? Evidence from Large-Scale Longitudinal Data on Ghana

Atta-Ankomah,

Adjei-Mantey,

Asante-Poku

et al. 2024

Applied Research Quality Life

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A key objective of development thought is to improve the welfare of people and enhance their satisfaction with life. This is important following literature that suggests that increasing incomes may not necessarily lead to happiness in the long term. In this regard, this study investigates the drivers of happiness in Ghana and the determinants of transitions into different happiness states. Using a nationwide panel dataset over three time periods and employing econometric techniques, the study found that among the key determinants of happiness in Ghana are assets, social capital/networks, health status, ethnicity, age and location of residence. The study further found that assets neutralize the effects of other vital drivers while social network has a moderating effect on how assets predict happiness. In contrast, an inverted U-shape was found for the importance of assets to happiness over one’s age, suggesting that assets begin to matter less for one’s happiness beyond a certain age threshold. Aside from assets and social network, which predict transitions from any state of happiness to the other, the importance of other correlates of the transitions largely varies by the initial state of happiness. The implications are discussed within the framework of the goals of development policy.

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Financial assets and happiness: evidence from the China Household Finance Survey

Cited by 5 publications

References 11 publications

Buddhist culture as a safeguard for the subjective happiness of Chinese residents: mitigating anxiety regarding housing prices, unemployment, and inequality

Buddhist culture as a safeguard for the subjective happiness of Chinese residents: mitigating anxiety regarding housing prices, unemployment, and inequality

The causes of income inequality in urban China: A household assets perspective

What Makes People Happy with their Lives in Developing Countries? Evidence from Large-Scale Longitudinal Data on Ghana

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