摘要
随着现代化进程的加快,中国家庭结构逐渐从大家庭向核心家庭、小家庭裂变,但是家庭之间仍然以血缘和姻缘为纽带保持着密切联系,形成了独具特色的“分而不疏”的家庭关系。这种独特的家庭关系是否会对家庭消费产生影响,目前仍未得到学术界的关注。本文使用中国家庭追踪调查(CFPS)数据,系统研究了家庭关系对我国居民家庭消费的影响,填补了这方面的研究空白。考虑了内生性问题的回归结果显示,较紧密的家庭关系能够显著提升中国居民的家庭消费水平,对于经济状况较差、户主的社会保障情况相对不完善和户主为老年人的家庭而言,这种提升效果更为明显。本文的研究意味着,在我国城市化加速发展和传统社会家庭关系解构的过程中,需要进一步健全社会保障、消除信息和资源鸿沟,以激发居民消费潜力,推动经济高质量发展。
The insufficient consumption of residents has become one of the important factors restricting the high-quality development of China’s economy.This issue has become more urgent and important against the background of the pandemic,the accelerated evolution of the profound changes unseen in a century,and the increasingly complex and severe external environment.Since 2021,with the deepening of the supply side structural reform,the factors restricting residents’consumption,such as income,pandemic situation and risk aversion tendency have improved to a certain extent.However,how to take more effective measures to stimulate residents’potential consumption is still an important task for the theoretical circles and policy-makers.In view of the insufficient consumption of Chinese residents,scholars both at home and abroad have put forward various explanations from the perspectives of demographic changes,imperfect financial market,preventive savings,cultural habits and family preference,wealth effect of housing,income gap,social network,and well-being,which provide important reference for the formulation of the government’s macro consumption policy.However,existing studies ignored another important factor which may affect residents’consumption,namely,family network.Family network refers to the social network composed of nuclear families with relatives based on relationship of blood and in law.In most cases,it is a special social organization composed of several independent nuclear families that may form a joint family,with special structure and function.Different from the village image of the clan network and the broad perspective of the social network,the family network is the most core and stable part of the social relationship network based on the relationship of blood and in law,and it is the most direct part that affects the economic behavior of residents’families as well.In the conflict and integration between tradition and modernity,this kind of family network is different from the one in Western countries with strong cohesion and loyalty.It is not only a financing network,but also an information exchange network and a reference system for social comparison.Theoretically,the impact of family network on residents’consumption is very complex.It may not only promote residents’consumption by providing resources,information transmission,demonstration and comparison,but also affect residents’consumption adversely by crowding out resources and encouraging speculation.Then,how does the family network affect the household consumption of Chinese residents?Will this impact be differentiated by other factors?Existing literature has not yet answered this question.This paper analyzes the impact of China’s family network on its household consumption using 2010 and 2014 China Family Panel Studies(CFPS)data,and fills the above research gap.Based on controlling the clan network,social network,and other variables of individuals,family,and region,this paper finds that the close family network has significant and stable positive effects on promoting the consumption of Chinese residents.This result is obtained considering the endogeneity.Furthermore,this effect varies with householders’family economic situation,social security situation and age structure.Compared with the family with relatively younger,richer,and better social security,the effect of the family network is more significant for the household with poor economic situation,relatively imperfect social security situation and elderly as the head of household.The research of this paper means that in the process of accelerating the development of urbanization and the deconstruction of traditional social family relations,it is necessary to further improve social security,eliminate the information and resource gap,and then stimulate the consumption potential of residents and promote high-quality economic development.The main contributions of this paper are as follows.First,based on relationship of blood and in law,this paper builds a family network index with Chinese characteristics,which expands the research of social network related fields and enriches related literature of culture and economy.Second,it studies the influencing factors of household consumption from the perspective of family network,which enriches theoretical literature of consumption economics,and provides micro evidence for understanding the importance of family network in household consumption behavior.Third,it provides useful implications for the formulation and improvement of macro consumption policy through the difference analysis.
作者
田子方
李涛
伏霖
TIAN Zifang;LI Tao;FU Lin(School of Economics,Central University of Finance and Economics)
出处
《经济研究》
CSSCI
北大核心
2022年第6期173-190,共18页
Economic Research Journal
基金
国家社科基金青年项目(19CJL038)
北京高校卓越青年科学家计划项目(BJJWZYJH01201910034034)的资助
关键词
家庭关系
居民家庭消费
社会网络
Family Network
Household Consumption
Social Network
