Research On The Impact Of Household Debt On Workers’ Time Allocation

Household debt has become a universal long-term expenditure,and the resulting impact on time allocation is worthy of in-depth study.Based on the 2017 China time use survey data（ctus）and 2017 China Household Finance survey data（chfs）,this paper empirically studies the impact of household debt on workers’ time allocation.The specific process is as follows: firstly,Tobit regression model is used to analyze whether family debt affects workers’ time allocation and gender differences,and further investigate the impact of family debt on workers’ time allocation in groups from the aspects of urban and rural areas,family income level and education level.Next,it examines the impact of household debt scale on workers’ time allocation from the total amount,and analyzes the impact of housing debt and non housing debt on workers’ time allocation from the debt structure.Finally,propensity score matching method is used to test the robustness of the estimation results.The empirical analysis found that:first,the family debt increased the paid working time of male workers by 0.2281 hours/ day,increased the paid working time of female workers by 0.2503 hours / day,reduced the leisure time of male workers by 0.1823 hours / day,and reduced the leisure time of female workers by 0.2756 hours / day.Second,the sub group analysis found that the paid working time and leisure time of low-income family workers and workers with low education level were most affected by family debt.Third,housing debt only has a negative impact on paid labor time of male workers,but has no significant impact on other activity time;Non housing liabilities significantly increase the paid working time of workers,and have a negative impact on the leisure time of female workers.In view of the above conclusions,the following policy suggestions are put forward: the financial sector should pay special attention to the bank credit support of low-income groups;The government and financial institutions should appropriately reduce the credit threshold to meet the business lending and consumption lending needs of a larger group of residents;Government departments should actively guide residents to allocate household assets reasonably,especially debt assets.