The Impact Of Internet Usage On The Financial Asset Allocation Of Rural Households

The family financial assets is an important part of the family total assets,which integrates the functions of transaction,investment,smooth consumption and risk management.The fundamental aim of the allocation of family financial assets is to realize the preservation and appreciation of wealth,which is not only the realistic need to enhance the family property income,also is strengthens our country financial market vigor and the promotion national economy development important link.The Report of the 20 th National Congress of the Communist Party of China stressed the need to “Increase property income of urban and rural residents through multiple channels.”.However,due to the dual economic structure of urban and rural areas in our country,the economic development and financial level in rural areas are generally low,and the financial needs of rural families can’t be effectively met.According to CHFS statistics,as of 2019,the average income of rural households was 65,500 Yuan,and the average of household assets reached 411,300 Yuan,of which real estate accounted for 57.13%of the total household assets,while financial assets accounted for only 10.08 percent of the total household assets,and demand deposits and term deposits account for 75.53% of household financial assets.It can be seen that rural households already have wealth conditions,but the proportion of financial asset allocation is seriously insufficient,for a low proportion of total financial assets and a large proportion of non-risk financial assets.On the one side,under the background of imperfect rural financial supply mechanism,unbalanced allocation of financial resources and imperfect financial risk mitigation mechanism,major commercial banks have long focused their rural financial business on savings,mortgage loans and small loans to farmers,and the supply of financial products and services is insufficient.On the other side,the access to financial information of rural families is narrow,and the main channel for rural families to obtain investment information is through the introduction of relatives and friends and the consultation of Bank branch financial practitioners,the communication efficiency of the offline information channel is low,the distortion degree is high and the homogeneity is serious,has the high decision-making mistake risk.Timely,accurate and efficient access to information is the key to affect household financial asset choice behavior.The 2023’s No.1 document calls for “Further implementation of the action for Digital Rural Development and promotion of research and development of digital application scenarios.”.As an emerging information sharing platform,the Internet can enhance the financial information drive in rural areas by reducing transaction costs,improving social networks and enhancing social interaction,we will improve financial services in rural areas.Relying on the Internet,financial institutions can not only provide rural families with diversified and complicated financial knowledge,products and services,but also help to lower the transaction threshold of rural financial services,improve financial availability and service level.According to the50th“Statistical report on the development of the Internet in China,” as of June 2022,the Internet penetration rate in rural areas of our country has reached 58.8%,the proportion of internet users accounted for 27.88%,this provides an objective condition for meeting the needs of rural family’s financial asset allocation by means of internet.The information-driven function of Internet is and will continue to affect the investment decision-making behavior of our country’s rural families.This paper was guided by family economics theory,early family asset allocation behavior theory and a series of new family asset allocation behavior theory.This paper discusses the impact of Internet use on rural household financial asset allocation from the following aspects: Does Internet use affect rural household financial asset allocation? How Big is the effect? What is the path of action? Does heterogeneity result from differences in Internet use and basic household characteristics? On the basis of reviewing relevant literature and theoretical analysis,using cross-sectional data of China household finance survey(CHFS),using Probit model,two-stage Heckman model,Tobit model,2SLS,PSM,conditional mixture estimation and other measurement methods,this paper examines the impact of Internet use on rural household financial asset allocation from four aspects: whether the rural household financial asset allocation,scale,structure and efficiency:(1)The impact of Internet usage on the allocation of financial assets in rural households: Internet use can effectively improve the allocation probability of risk and non-risk financial assets in rural households,the attention degree of financial information has a partial intermediary effect between Internet use and rural household financial asset holding.The heterogeneity analysis of Internet use shows that online transaction and information collection have the strongest effect on risky financial assets,while online transaction has the strongest effect on non-risky financial assets.The heterogeneity analysis of the basic characteristics of rural households shows that the impact of Internet use on risky financial assets is mainly reflected in the size of 3 more households;The impact of Internet use,age and purpose on risky financial assets is also mainly reflected in households with an annual income of100,000 Yuan and above,the impact on non-risky financial assets is mainly reflected in households with an annual income of less than 50,000 Yuan;in addition,it can effectively increase the holdings of risky financial assets by households with high school education and above,and non-risky financial assets by households with primary education and below;It is also beneficial to increase the probability of holding risky financial assets in eastern and central regions,and to promote the holding of non-risky financial assets by rural families in western regions.(2)The impact of Internet usage on the allocation of financial assets in rural households: Internet use can effectively increase the allocation of risk and non-risk financial assets in rural households,social interaction has a partial mediating effect between Internet use and rural household financial asset allocation.The heterogeneity analysis of Internet use shows that the use of online transactions and information collection can significantly enhance the allocation of risk financial assets of rural households,online trading,information gathering,social networking and other uses are conducive to improving the scale of non-risk financial asset allocation.The heterogeneity analysis of the basic characteristics of rural families shows that,the impact of Internet use on the allocation of risky financial assets is mainly reflected in the size of less than 4 population,the income level of 5,000-100,000 Yuan family,and the education level of the head of household in primary school and below and high school and above families,it has a significant effect on the scale of non-risk financial assets,but it has a stronger effect on families with five or more persons,families with annual income of 500,000 Yuan to100,000 Yuan,and families whose heads of household are educated at primary school level and below,the impact of Internet use on the allocation of household risky financial assets is most obvious in the western region,and the impact on the allocation of household non-risky financial assets is most obvious in the central region.(3)The impact of Internet usage on the financial asset allocation structure of rural households:Internet use helps to improve the financial asset allocation structure of rural households,and social trust has a partial mediating effect between Internet use and rural household financial asset allocation structure.The heterogeneity analysis of Internet use shows that online transactions have the strongest impact on the number of risky financial asset allocation types,while information collection has the strongest impact on the number of non-risky financial asset allocation types Online trading has the strongest impact on the allocation of risky and non-risky financial assets,and online trading and information collection have a greater impact on the diversity of venture capital.The heterogeneity analysis of the basic characteristics of rural families shows that the impact of Internet use on the configuration structure of families with different population sizes is mainly reflected in families with5 or more population sizes;The impact on the allocation structure of families with different income levels is mainly reflected in the families with annual income of 5,000-100,000 Yuan;The impact on the distribution structure of households with different educational levels of heads of household is mainly reflected in the primary school and below and the families after junior high school;The impact on the structure of family allocation in different regions is mainly reflected in the rural families in the Central Region.(4)The impact of Internet usage on the financial assets allocation efficiency of rural households:Internet usage helps to improve the allocation efficiency of rural household financial assets,and the level of financial knowledge has some mediating effect between the use of Internet and the efficiency of rural household financial asset allocation.The heterogeneity analysis of Internet use shows that families in the eastern region tend to improve the allocation efficiency through information collection and online transaction,families in central China tend to increase allocation efficiency through information collection and recreational use,while those in western China tend to increase allocation efficiency through social networking and online transactions.The heterogeneity analysis of the basic characteristics of rural families showed that the lengthening of Internet service life could improve the allocation efficiency of less than 4 families Whether the Internet is used,years and purposes are conducive to improve the annual average income of less than 100,000 Yuan families allocation efficiency;Increasing the rate of Internet use can effectively improve the allocation efficiency of households with high school education and above,and Internet use has a relatively large effect on the allocation efficiency of financial assets of rural households in the Central Region.The policy implications of this paper are as follows: Firstly,advance the strategy of digital rural development to strengthen farmers’ Internet use skills;Secondly,deepen Digital Financial Inclusion services to improve financial availability in rural areas;Third,we should enrich the types of household financial products and optimize the structure of household financial assets.Finally,we should increase the popularization of financial knowledge,improve the allocation of financial assets.