Digital finance and household retirement planning: Evidence from China

IF 6.9 2区经济学 Q1 BUSINESS, FINANCE

Research in International Business and Finance Pub Date : 2025-08-01 DOI:10.1016/j.ribaf.2025.103116

Xuefeng Pan , Yuhao Tian , Weixing Wu

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Abstract

Worldwide population aging intensifies the urgency of retirement planning. We examine how progress in financial technology reshapes household mindsets to guide their retirement planning decisions. Utilizing a survey of 40,916 households that records retirement-related mindsets and behaviors in China, we find that increases in digital financial inclusion, an established proxy for financial technology, power a mindset shift towards self-responsibility for providing for one’s retired life. This in turn increases the probability of retirement planning, especially the planning implemented through the means of savings. We further show that such effects are concentrated on the self-employed, likely due to their exposure to business risks and so their desire to build retirement income certainty through precautionary savings. We contribute by utilizing a mass experiment to identify mindset shifts as a channel through which financial technology improves retirement planning, besides the financial literacy channel and the credit channel often found.

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数字金融与家庭退休计划：来自中国的证据

全球人口老龄化加剧了退休计划的紧迫性。我们研究了金融技术的进步如何重塑家庭心态，以指导他们的退休计划决策。通过对40,916个家庭的调查，记录了中国与退休相关的心态和行为，我们发现数字普惠金融（金融技术的既定代表）的增长推动了一种心态的转变，即为退休生活提供自我责任。这反过来又增加了退休计划的可能性，特别是通过储蓄手段实施的计划。我们进一步表明，这种影响主要集中在自雇人士身上，可能是因为他们面临商业风险，因此他们希望通过预防性储蓄来建立退休收入的确定性。除了经常发现的金融素养渠道和信贷渠道外，我们通过大规模实验来确定心态转变是金融技术改善退休计划的一个渠道。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Research in International Business and Finance BUSINESS, FINANCE-

CiteScore

11.20

自引率

9.20%

发文量

240

期刊介绍： Research in International Business and Finance (RIBAF) seeks to consolidate its position as a premier scholarly vehicle of academic finance. The Journal publishes high quality, insightful, well-written papers that explore current and new issues in international finance. Papers that foster dialogue, innovation, and intellectual risk-taking in financial studies; as well as shed light on the interaction between finance and broader societal concerns are particularly appreciated. The Journal welcomes submissions that seek to expand the boundaries of academic finance and otherwise challenge the discipline. Papers studying finance using a variety of methodologies; as well as interdisciplinary studies will be considered for publication. Papers that examine topical issues using extensive international data sets are welcome. Single-country studies can also be considered for publication provided that they develop novel methodological and theoretical approaches or fall within the Journal''s priority themes. It is especially important that single-country studies communicate to the reader why the particular chosen country is especially relevant to the issue being investigated. [...] The scope of topics that are most interesting to RIBAF readers include the following: -Financial markets and institutions -Financial practices and sustainability -The impact of national culture on finance -The impact of formal and informal institutions on finance -Privatizations, public financing, and nonprofit issues in finance -Interdisciplinary financial studies -Finance and international development -International financial crises and regulation -Financialization studies -International financial integration and architecture -Behavioral aspects in finance -Consumer finance -Methodologies and conceptualization issues related to finance