| With the development of China’s economy and the rapid accumulation of residents’ wealth,the per capita disposable income of urban residents increased from 6280 yuan in 2000 to 40009 yuan in 2018.During the same period,the per capita disposable income of rural residents increased from 2282 yuan to 11567 yuan.With the continuous accumulation of wealth,the investment demand of residents also increased.However,the data shows that the participation rate and investment proportion of Chinese households in the risk-based financial market are far from enough,and the continuous improvement of the financial market in recent years has not been able to solve this structural problem.The 2015 China Household Financial Survey(CHFS)data shows that,the average proportion of China’s household financial assets in the total assets of households is only 10.3%,and more than 70% of them are risk-free assets.That is,the capital of financial assets accounts for only about 3% of total assets,which is contrary to the decentralized investment concept in Markowitz’s modern portfolio theory.In recent years,"haze days" occur frequently in many places,and the negative impact of environmental pollution gradually appears.Serious air pollution has greatly affected the subjective mood of residents.On the other hand,it also poses a threat to the residents’ health.Harmful substances in the air enter the human body with breathing,inducing various respiratory diseases,and spread through air.According to WHO,outdoor air pollution has caused more than 4.2 million deaths every year in the world since 2016.These impacts of air quality will be further transmitted to financial decisionmaking and affect the allocation of risk assets of households.In this context,it is very important to study the impact of air quality on the allocation of household risk assets and clarify the impact path,so as to improve the participation of household risk market,increase the financial stability of households,and guide household funds flow into the financial market.This paper firstly reviews the theoretical and empirical research of household asset selection behavior,and then puts forward the research questions of this paper.Secondly,this paper analyzes the mechanism of air quality on household risk asset allocation in detail,which including preventive motivation,investment time expectation,investors’ risk preference and time energy.Thirdly,based on the theoretical analysis,this paper matches the data of China’s household financial Survey(CHFS)with the data of air quality at the municipal level,and then uses panel Probit model and panel Tobit model to analyze the impact of air quality on them.The stepwise regression method was used to test whether the mediating effect of health status was significant.Combined with the actual situation of China,the samples are subsequently divided based on the age of the head of household,the nature of urban or rural areas and region to test the heterogeneity.The main conclusion is still valid after the air quality measurement is changed,which proves its robustness.The main conclusions of this paper are as follows.Firstly,air pollution has significantly reduced the willingness to participate in the family risk financial assets and the proportion of its capital allocation.On the one hand,the deterioration of air quality directly affects the subjective mood of investors and changes the risk preference of investors,making them more risk averse.On the other hand,air pollution would significantly reduce the health status of residents,and then increase the investors’ demand for precautionary savings,shortens the time horizon for investment,and ultimately reduces the willingness to participate risk assets.Secondly,different age groups have different sensitivity to air quality.Households with member older than 50 are more sensitive to the change of air quality,which is mainly due to the weakening of human immunity with the increase of age.Thirdly,the direction and significance of the impact of air quality on the allocation of risk assets of the households participating in the medical insurance are the same as those of the uninsured households,while the impact of uninsured households is greater.This is because the medical insurance effectively reduces the risk exposure faced by the households by reducing the burden of medical expenditure,thus reducing the change of family preventive saving demand.Fourthly,there exists obvious urban-rural heterogeneity in this impact.The participation and allocation proportion of risk assets of urban households is significantly reduced when the air quality becomes poor,while the impact of rural households is not significant.The specific reason is that urban residents are more sensitive to the marginal change of air quality.Fifthly,there exists obvious regional heterogeneity in this impact.The decision-making of risk asset allocation of households in the eastern region is very sensitive to the change of air quality,but for households in the central and western regions,we fail to observe this phenomenon.This is because the population in the eastern region is more intensive,and all kinds of infectious respiratory diseases caused by air pollution are more likely to spread among the population.Based on micro household financial database,this paper combines theoretical analysis and empirical test,discussing the impact of air quality on household’s risk assets allocation decision in detail.Furthermore,this paper introduces the intermediary effect model to explore the mechanism of action,and innovatively improves the accuracy of data matching to the city level,enriching the research in the field of domestic household asset selection.This paper is valuable for the future study.Besides,the main findings of this paper can provide a theoretical basis for the policy of environmental protection and rationalization of family asset allocation,which is conducive to improving the residents’ comprehensive quality of life,enhancing the stability of family finance,guiding incremental capital into the financial market,and stimulating market vitality. |
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