The Influence Of Family Age Structure On Household Financial Asset Allocation

In recent years,with the rapid and sustained development of China’s economy,the income of urban and rural residents has increased significantly,and people are leading a richer and happier life.In addition,the allocation of household financial assets is also more diversified.Medium-high risk financial assets such as funds,bonds and stocks gradually come into the attention of households and become a part of household assets together with traditional low-risk assets such as cash and bank deposits.At the same time,the aging level of China’s population is gradually increasing,and the family age structure has undergone profound changes,mainly reflected in the increase of elderly proportion in family.In May 2021,China’s National Bureau of Statistics released the seventh national population census,which showed that China’s population age structure has changed greatly in the past decade,with the number of elderly people over 60 years old increasing significantly,while the number of people between 15 and 59 years old showing a significant decline.In this context,elderly care,consumption and financial asset allocation of household are likely to change.Then,how does family age structure affect household financial asset allocation? Through what channels does family age structure influence household financial asset allocation? What heterogeneity exists in urban and rural households and households with different health status of heads? The answers to the above questions are of great theoretical and practical significance for improving the structure of Chinese household financial assets under the background of population aging.Firstly,this paper demonstrates the present age structure of population in China,the current situation of family asset allocation and further analyzes their correlation and the mechanism of family age structure affecting financial asset allocation.On this basis,this paper uses the panel data of China Household Finance Survey(CHFS)from 2013 to 2017 from Southwestern University of Finance and Economics to empirically test the impact of family age structure on household financial asset allocation,and carries out heterogeneity analysis and mechanism analysis.Finally,this paper puts forward corresponding policy suggestions from the perspectives of balanced urban-rural development,social security system,residents’ financial literacy and financial product innovation.This paper finds that the age structure of a family has a significant impact on the allocation of financial assets of a family.The increase of children proportion in family will increase the preference for allocating risky financial assets,while the increase of the proportion of elderly will reduce it.Compared with urban households,the proportion of elderly population in rural households has a weaker negative impact on the holding preference of risky financial assets.Households headed by healthy heads were more likely to allocate risky financial assets such as funds and stocks than households headed by unhealthy heads.With the change of household age structure,the risk attitude of household head also changes,which affects household allocation decision.The increase of elderly proportion raises the risk aversion degree of the household head,thus reducing the family preference for risky financial assets,and the decrease of the proportion of young population will have the same effect.In addition,the changes of family age structure affect family education expenditure,and then affect the allocation decision of risky financial assets.With the increase of the proportion of elderly people in family,the family education expenditure will decrease significantly,thus reducing the family’s preference for holding risky financial assets.The decrease of children proportion in the total family population will also have the same effect.The innovation of this paper includes: first,the research perspective.Existing literature mainly studies the influencing factors of family financial asset allocation from the aspects of social and economic development level and family wealth.In view of the changes of family age structure under the background of aging,this paper analyzes the changing rules of family financial asset allocation from the perspective of family age structure,thus enriching the research perspective of financial asset allocation.Second,the research content.This paper empirically examines the impact of family age structure on financial asset allocation,analyzes the impact mechanism from the perspective of risk attitude and education expenditure,and analyzes heterogeneity in urban and rural households and households with different health status of heads.This paper expands the research content in the microfinance field and enriches the research conclusions on the factors influencing household financial asset allocation.Based on the above research conclusions,this paper suggests that the integration of urban and rural areas should be strengthened so that both urban and rural residents can benefit equally from national economic development and asset allocation should be optimized.The social security system should be improved with a wider coverage and reduce the impact of health shocks on family economy.We should further popularize financial knowledge and improve residents’ financial literacy.We should encourage innovation in financial products and provide diversified products and services.The above countermeasures and suggestions have practical guiding significance and reference significance for optimizing household asset allocation and reasonably coping with the aging process.