Top Stories - Posted by Nathan Hurst-Missouri on Friday, August 12, 2011 9:46 - 2 Comments 
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(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Family savings higher in China vs. US
With the global economy in a state of unrest, saving money seems to be an obvious strategy for households to protect themselves. But are global households saving enough? Researchers compared savings habits of households from two of the world’s most powerful economies: China and the United States. (Credit: iStockphoto)
U. MISSOURI (US) — A study comparing household savings in the United States and China finds 59 percent of Chinese urban households save for education, compared to only 19 percent of US households.
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The text of this article by Futurity is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivatives License.
In fact, urban Chinese households, on average, save much more than American households. The difference stems from saving motives, says Rui Yao, an assistant professor in the personal financial planning department at the University of Missouri.
“Saving is one of the critical tools that households utilize to achieve financial goals and to improve financial well-being,” Yao says. “By looking at saving motives for households in each country, we hope to explain the difference in saving rates across these two countries.”
For her study—which will be published in the Family and Consumer Sciences Research Journal—Yao looked at three common savings motives: precautionary, education, and retirement. By studying and comparing results from the American 2007 Survey of Consumer Finances and the 2008 Survey of Chinese Consumer Finance and Investor Education, Yao found nearly 60 percent of Chinese households save for precautionary reasons, while only 35 percent of American households have similar saving motives.
There was no strong significance in the difference in retirement savings; however low income Chinese households reported saving more for retirement than low income American households. Yao believes the variations in saving motives are related to from cultural and economic differences between the two countries.
“In the US, unemployment insurance and other welfare programs provide a relatively sound safety net, whereas in China, there are no such social-welfare programs,” Yao said. “As a result, Chinese households must resort to family support or previous savings in the case of an emergency.
“Also, the Chinese culture, which is influenced by Confucianism, values education very highly. Recent Chinese economic reforms have shifted education costs to households, which gives them additional motive for education saving.”
Yao says the percentages of households reporting a motive to save for retirement (51 percent for the Chinese sample and 45 percent for the American sample) indicate that both Chinese and American households should be motivated to save for retirement. She believes economic reforms in China have significantly changed their retirement plan system.
“There is no sound social security system in China,” Yao says. “In the United States, the future of Social Security remains uncertain and employers who used to sponsor defined benefit pension plans have started to offer defined contribution plans instead. Facing a higher longevity risk and more responsibilities for their financial well-being during retirement, people in both countries should motivate themselves to save for retirement.”
To increase saving habits in America, Yao suggests more incentives for employers to provide retirement benefit plans for employees. She also advocates increased financial planning education to increase precautionary saving in the US.
More news from the University of Missouri: http://munews.missouri.edu/
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2 Comments
Maxi Decker
The article fails to discuss how education is typically paid for in the US. We borrow the money. Furthermore, those who have lived through tough economic times are often more careful with their finances.
Good Chinese policy for retirement.