China's average household saving rate is one of the highest in the world. One popular view attributes the high saving rate to fast rising housing prices and other costs of living in China. This article uses simple economic logic to show that rising housing prices and living costs per se cannot...

The lack of financial knowledge and its serious consequences has brought about extensive discussion among academics since the 2008 financial crisis. This study investigates the importance of financial intermediation in financial literacy. Using Consumer Finance and Investment Education Survey...

This paper discusses three alternative assumptions concerning household preferences (altruism, self-interest, and a desire for dynasty building) and shows that these assumptions have very different implications for bequest motives and bequest division. After reviewing some of the literature on...

China's over 25% aggregate household saving rate is one of the highest in the world. One popular view attributes the high saving rate to fast-rising housing prices in China. However, cross-sectional data do not show a significant relationship between housing prices and household saving rates....

This paper introduces the current social insurance system in China and discusses how the system affects household consumption and saving behavior. We focus on two important components of this system: health insurance and social security. For the health insurance system, we exploit a...

During the Polish economy transformation process a lot of reforms have been implemented, including those connected with pension system. But future pensioners should not, unfortunately, trust in high rate of future pensions received from pensioner system, much earlier, individually should take...

This paper provides new evidence on the housing wealth effect on consumption using household panel data. A key advantage in studying the Chinese housing market is the absence of the collateral channel, as households are prohibited from withdrawing housing equity. The results show that for every...