Cross-cultural Mobility And Family Asset Allocation

The report of the 19 th CPC National Congress put forward the goal of "broadening the channels of household labor income and property income",and reasonable household asset allocation is an important way to achieve this goal.However,there are three unreasonable problems in China's household asset allocation.First,the residents' savings are too high corresponding to insufficient consumption;Second,"limited participation" of risky financial assets;Third,Chinese residents have too many choices of housing assets.These problems have been taken seriously by the state.The government has continuously introduced policies to stimulate consumption,standardize and improve the financial market and housing market.However,the residents' own driving force is still insufficient,so it is particularly important to find the cultural endogenous power of residents.This paper studies the influence of cross-cultural mobility experience at the micro household level on household asset allocation and divides cross-cultural mobility experience into international and domestic cross-cultural mobility.Among them,international cross-cultural mobility experience is studied by studying abroad,while domestic cross-cultural mobility experience is analyzed based on living experience in different places between north and south.Household asset allocation selects risk-free financial assets such as deposits,risky financial assets dominated by stock assets,and non-financial assets represented by housing assets as research objects.This paper attempts to explore the impact of these two types of cross-cultural mobility experiences on household savings,stock market participation and housing asset selection.On this basis,through the analysis of cultural differences between China and the West and between the south and the north in China,based on branding theory,cross-cultural adaptation theory and mediating effect model,the mechanism of "cognitive branding" generated by the two types of cross-cultural mobility experiences on family asset allocation is analyzed from the perspective of multi-dimensional cultural concepts.The specific research contents and conclusions are as follows:First,it studies the impact of international cross-cultural mobility experience on family asset allocation,that is,it examines the difference in asset allocation between families with overseas study experience and non-overseas study experience.Firstly,the differences in household asset allocation between China and major western destination countries are compared through transnational data analysis.Secondly,based on the empirical analysis of the 2017 data of China Family Finance(CHFS),it is concluded that compared with "local" Chinese families,families with overseas study experience show a more consistent household asset allocation with those in western countries.That is,significantly lower savings rates,higher stock market participation and a lower share of housing assets.Thirdly,in terms of robustness test,on the one hand,the comparability of families with overseas study experience and non-overseas study experience is increased,mainly including the following two ways.(1)Manually select a sample of non-overseas study experience families that are more comparable to families with overseas study experience;(2)Regression analysis based on propensity score matching method.On the other hand is dealing with endogeneity,which can include the following types of treatment.(1)Increasing possible macroeconomic omitted variables;(2)Regression bias test caused by omitted variables was considered;(3)2SLS empirical analysis was conducted using "distance from family to the nearest port" or "number of people who have lived abroad for a long time but registered locally" as instrumental variables of "overseas study experience".In addition,different definitions of dependent variables or replacement of similar dependent variables were tried to carry out robustness tests.Second,the paper studies the influence of domestic cross-cultural mobility experience on family asset allocation,taking northern families as the research sample,and investigates the difference in asset allocation between northern families with southern mobility experience and other northern families.Firstly,the differences of household asset allocation between the south and the north are compared based on Chinese household financial data.Secondly,the "cultural ratchet effect" is used to answer why northern families are selected as the research sample,and families with the experience of southern migration are selected as the treatment group.Not a sample of southern families.Thirdly,through empirical analysis,it is concluded that compared with other northern families,northern families with southern migration experience show more consistent household asset allocation,namely significantly lower savings rate,higher stock market participation and lower proportion of housing assets.A series of robustness tests and endogeneity treatments further confirmed this conclusion.Thirdly,the cultural mechanism of overseas study experience affecting family asset allocation is investigated.Firstly,it analyzes the cultural differences between China and the West from three aspects: time preference,risk preference and filial piety culture.Secondly,the mechanism of the impact of overseas study experience on household savings rate,stock market participation and housing asset selection is analyzed from the three aspects of cultural concepts.The empirical results show that compared with families without overseas study experience,families with overseas study experience influenced by the culture of the main destination countries of western study show more consistent cultural concepts with the Western culture.A greater preference for the present,a greater appetite for risk,and a lower culture of filial piety.However,the influence of these cultural concepts on the asset selection behavior of the three families shows differences.To be specific,the cultural mechanism that overseas study experience influences household savings rate includes time preference,risk preference and filial piety culture;The cultural mechanism that overseas study experience influences family stock market participation includes time preference and risk preference,but filial piety culture does not play a role.The cultural mechanism that overseas study experience influences family housing asset selection includes time preference,risk preference and filial piety culture,among which filial piety culture plays a relatively weak role.Fourth,examine the cultural mechanism of the influence of southern migration experience on household asset allocation.Firstly,it analyzes the cultural differences between north and South in China from three aspects: collectivism,risk preference and gender equality.The empirical analysis verifies that the south has significantly higher collectivism,stronger risk preference and more equal gender concept than the north.Secondly,the three cultural concepts are used as mechanisms to analyze the impact of migration experience in south China on household savings rate,stock market participation and housing asset selection.The empirical results show that compared with the northern families without the experience of southern migration,the northern families with the experience of southern migration show significantly more consistent cultural concepts with the southern culture.Higher collectivism,a higher appetite for risk and a more egalitarian view of gender.However,the influence of these cultural concepts on the asset selection behavior of the three families shows differences.To be specific,the cultural mechanisms through which southern mobility experiences influence household savings rates include collectivism and risk preference.The only cultural mechanism influencing family stock market participation is risk preference.However,the cultural mechanism of migration experience affecting family housing asset selection in south China includes risk preference and gender equality,and gender equality has relatively weak influence.The innovation of this paper can be summarized as follows.First,innovation of research perspective.Most of the existing studies on the relationship between social experience and family asset allocation focus on the influence of early experience on current family financial behavior.In the field of cross-cultural mobility,only a few articles analyze the impact of overseas study or work experience of corporate executives on corporate decisions.This paper is the first to study the impact of cross-cultural mobility experience on household asset allocation from the micro household level,which makes up for the deficiency of existing literature.Second,innovation of theoretical application.Based on the branding theory,most of the existing researches focus on the influence of the "ability branding" of sensitive period and environment on economic behavior.Based on the theory of cross-cultural adaptation,current literature focuses on the cultural differences and cultural integration between immigrants,foreign students,sojourners and other "foreign cultural carriers" and indigenous people.The "cognitive brand" carried in the experience period of cross-cultural mobility explored in this paper will be different from the household asset allocation of local residents after returning.This study broadens the practical application of branding theory and cross-cultural adaptation theory.Third,innovation of research ideas.At present,"epidemiological analysis" has been relatively mature in the research of cross-cultural mobility.However,the "epidemiological analysis method" mainly focuses on the differences between the cultures of the original country and the indigenous people that have not yet been integrated in the immigration process.If the immigration period is long,the differences in economic behaviors will disappear after the cultural integration.This paper focuses on the influence of cultural integration caused by migration to different cultural circles on economic behavior after reflux,which provides a new idea for the study of cross-cultural mobility.Fourth,innovation of research content.This paper examine the domestic flow experience with the family for the first time "indigenous" family asset allocation differences between families in the north,trying to find this kind of economic behavior psychological and cultural factors,and through the existing literature and data and other evidence as much as possible,sums up the cultural differences of the north and the south,the north and the south for domestic research cultural system has the enlightenment function.In addition,in previous studies on the relationship between culture and asset allocation,the measurement of culture is relatively simple.Based on the complexity and multi-dimension of culture,this paper compares the differences of multi-dimensional cultural systems in different cultural circles through cross-cultural flow experience,and tries to investigate from various cultural dimensions.This study provides a new approach for policy making from the perspective of micro family culture and psychology.For example,the government needs to cooperate with all kinds of media to do a good job in publicity and promotion,actively cultivate a healthy and rational consumption concept,vigorously promote the establishment of a consumption culture that is thrifty and compatible with refined and vulgar,appropriately participate in the venture investment concept of risky financial assets,and advocate the psychological positioning that houses are for living,not speculation.It provides important cultural guidance for policy making to adhere to the "people-oriented" principle.