Daughters, Savings and Household Finances

Daughters, Savings and Household Finances | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Daughters, Savings and Household Finances Xin Wen, Zhiming Cheng, Massimiliano Tani This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-3888209/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract We explore the link between child gender and household financial decisions within a cultural environment that strongly favours having a son. Using data from the China Household Finance Survey (CHFS), we find that the presence of a daughter is associated with a lower saving rate. This is consistent with the hypothesis that such families, facing a less competitive marriage market thanks to the relative under-supply of unmarried women, have lower incentives to raise their female heirs’ marital prospects by accumulating bigger asset pools. The negative correlation becomes more pronounced as the firstborn child and daughter approach marriageable age. Additionally, home-buying intention and daily necessities consumption are the channels through which the daughters influence the saving rate of families with a child of marriageable age. This study expands existing research by examining the impact of child gender on financial decisions while controlling for unobserved time-invariant heterogeneity thanks to the panel nature of the CHFS. JEL: D14, G11, G51, J12 daughter household investment decisions family savings marriage market Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-3888209","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":269099827,"identity":"2420ae86-1878-4798-bb80-c702895ed274","order_by":0,"name":"Xin Wen","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAA3klEQVRIiWNgGAWjYDACZgglxw/lMzYQq8VYsoFoLVCQaHCAWC0Gx3kPMPNU3EkwvpF7+DMPg43shgPMzyTwaZFs5ktg5jnzLM/sRl6aNA9DmvGGA2xmeLXwM/MYMOe2HS42u5FjxpzDcDhxwwEG/FrYwFr+HU7cPCPH+HMOw3+gFvZvRNjSADRcIsdAOofhAFALD35bJJt5DA7/OXbYWOLMGzPpPwbJxjMP8xRb4NNicP6M4cMZNYfl+NtzjD/OqLCT7TvevvEGPi0gcADJBAZ45I6CUTAKRsEooAAAAGjYRLoUmdn5AAAAAElFTkSuQmCC","orcid":"","institution":"UNSW Sydney","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Xin","middleName":"","lastName":"Wen","suffix":""},{"id":269099828,"identity":"cf4cdbbc-b5fa-4b39-bcc1-f6924ba78e49","order_by":1,"name":"Zhiming Cheng","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Macquarie University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Zhiming","middleName":"","lastName":"Cheng","suffix":""},{"id":269099829,"identity":"a3be7fe2-c625-4443-9d35-527001d69651","order_by":2,"name":"Massimiliano Tani","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"UNSW Sydney","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Massimiliano","middleName":"","lastName":"Tani","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2024-01-22 14:33:01","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-3888209/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-3888209/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":60362019,"identity":"1ccee929-2f1b-44f1-a5c1-166b78128bdb","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2024-07-16 02:39:26","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":421233,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"Daughtersavingandhouseholdfinance22Jan.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-3888209/v1_covered_8a6f95b9-6f78-451b-88e4-0251c267240c.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"No competing interests reported.","formattedTitle":"Daughters, Savings and Household Finances","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"daughter, household investment decisions, family savings, marriage market","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-3888209/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-3888209/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eWe explore the link between child gender and household financial decisions within a cultural environment that strongly favours having a son. 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