TY  - JOUR
AU  - Wei,Shang-Jin
AU  - Zhang,Xiaobo
TI  - The Competitive Saving Motive: Evidence from Rising Sex Ratios and Savings Rates in China
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 15093
PY  - 2009
Y2  - June 2009
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w15093
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w15093.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Shang-Jin Wei
Graduate School of Business
Columbia University
Uris Hall 619
3022 Broadway
New York, NY 10027-6902
Tel: 212/854-9139
E-Mail: shangjin.wei@columbia.edu

Xiaobo Zhang
International Food Policy Research Institute
2033 K Street, NW
Washington, DC  20006
Tel: 202-862-8149
Fax: 202-467-4439
E-Mail: x.zhang@cgiar.org
AB  - The high and rising household savings rate in China is not easily reconciled with the traditional explanations that emphasize life cycle factors, the precautionary saving motive, financial development, or habit formation. This paper proposes a new competitive saving motive: As the sex ratio rises, Chinese parents with a son raise their savings in a competitive manner in order to improve their son's relative attractiveness for marriage. The pressure on savings spills over to other households. Both cross-regional and household-level evidence supports this hypothesis. This factor can potentially account for about half of the actual increase in the household savings rate during 1990-2007.
ER  -