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| Financial Literacy and the Household Savings Rate: The Role of Financial Planning and Borrowing Constraints |
| WU Weixing, ZHANG Xuyang, WU Kun
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Research Center for Applied Finance in School of Banking and Finance, University of International Business and Economics;
School of Economics, Beijing Technology and Business University;
School of Economics, Beijing Wuzi University |
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Abstract Savings and consumption are critical topics in household financial decision-making research. A suitable and reasonable balance of savings and consumption in a person's life, known as consumption smoothing, can enhance a person's utilities and happiness. Rapid developments in financial technology have decreased the costs of individual participation in financial markets, and thus increased the heterogeneity of participants. Financial literacy plays an increasingly important role in financial decision-making, as financial products are constantly being enriched.
There is no consensus on the impact of financial literacy on household savings rates. Lusardi (2008) and Jappelli and Padula (2013) argue that improvements in financial literacy may encourage families to engage in financial planning, avoid excessive consumption, and increase savings. In contrast, Jappelli and Padula (2017) and Song et al. (2019) argue that financial literacy promotes consumption. These contradictory results occur due to the researchers' focus on different aspects and characteristics of financial literacy, which play different roles in household savings.
We use data from the China Consumer Finance Status and Investor Education Survey conducted by the China Financial Research Center of Tsinghua University in 2010 and 2011 to examine the relationship between financial literacy and the household savings rate. We use instrumental variables to mitigate endogeneity concerns and explore the mechanism that links financial literacy to household savings, especially the role of financial planning and borrowing constraints.
We find that financial literacy plays a significant role in household decisions about savings and consumption, and that the relationship between financial literacy and the household savings rate has an inverted U-shape. Financial literacy is positively correlated with financial planning, but negatively correlated with borrowing constraints. When financial sophistication improves, households that engage in financial planning try to make sure the accessible of affluent asset. When financial literacy surpasses a certain threshold, the role of financial planning in restraining consumption is weakened and its role in asset allocation is enhanced. Higher financing capacity helps households reduce future risks, thus the savings rate gradually declines. We further reveal that the inverted U-shaped relationship between financial literacy and savings rates does not mean that households with high levels of financial literacy are more likely to have insufficient savings or engage in excessive consumption. We demonstrate that families with higher financial literacy are more likely to maintain stable savings, and have a low probability of living hand-to-mouth. When the family's financial literacy improves, the increase in financial planning is less likely to have the effect of reducing consumption and is more likely to increase the optimal allocation of assets. That is, the focus of such families' financial planning shifts from increasing the savings rate to the preservation and appreciation of savings.
We make two main contributions. First, we clarify the relationship between financial literacy and the household savings rate and identify the mechanism that links them. Rising levels of financial literacy not only enhance financial planning but also reduce borrowing constraints. The influence of these two factors on the household savings rate varies with the level of financial literacy, which explains the inverted U-shaped relationship between financial literacy and the household savings rate. Second, we identify the causes of different household savings rates. Households with low savings rate can be divided into two types. The first type consists of families with low levels of financial literacy. Such families lack financial awareness and have higher borrowing constraints, making it difficult for them to accumulate savings. The second type consists of households with higher levels of financial literacy. High-level households have more stable savings, better liquidity, and more diversified asset allocation. Accordingly, low savings rate in the first type of families require close attention. Distinguishing the causes of differences in the household savings rate is of great significance for improving residents' welfare and enhancing the pertinence of financial education policies.
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Received: 25 December 2018
Published: 02 September 2021
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