| The research fields of traditional financial economics can be divided into two categories: the first category is asset pricing,and the second category is corporate finance,which mainly studies how companies take advantage of the wide range of financial products,tools and opportunities available in the market to maximize profits for your company.Campbell(2006)pointed out that household finance research is independent of corporate finance and asset pricing.It has broad research prospects and research significance.Guiso and Sodini(2013)reviewed the evolution and recent development of household finance research,arguing that when studying household financial decision-making,household finance considers and emphasizes the heterogeneity of household characteristics and the various institutional environments in which households live.It considers investment decisions,but unlike asset pricing,it takes a more balanced perspective and does not focus on wealthier,more risk-tolerant investors.It explores the financing of household consumption and investment,but unlike corporate finance,it does not involve the separation of ownership and control and the capital structure of the enterprise.Household finance has developed into a field with a unique research model and style.Household asset allocation has attracted a great deal of academic attention.However,there are few studies on the vulnerable group of the elderly in the existing literature.China’s population structure is facing a major change,the aging process is accelerating.With the increase in average life expectancy,families of the elderly will need to make various financial decisions for a long time in the future.Their decisions are not only related to their own well-being but also affect the financial market.The significance of research on the asset allocation of elderly families is self-evident.The main conclusions are as follows:First,the level of financial literacy of the elderly in China is low,and a large proportion of the elderly are financially illiterate.Among them,the proportion of financial illiteracy is about 20% in urban areas and 40% in rural areas.The three major questions of financial literacy are closely and positively related to the household asset allocation of the elderly.Elderly families who can correctly answer the question of risk diversification are more willing to hold risky financial products than those who fail to answer correctly.Elderly families who can correctly answer compound interest questions are not willing to hold assets with low risk and low return,and they either hold cash and deposits to meet liquidity,or they hold real estate and financial products in pursuit of high returns.The asset structure held is single,and the proportion is unbalanced.More than 80% of the elderly do not hold any financial assets.Second,with the popularity of the mobile Internet,new technologies have penetrated into the elderly.Most of the elderly(61.31%)have used We Chat or QQ groups,but only a small number of them(22.78%)have access to information through this online social interaction platform,and there are great differences between urban and rural elderly.There is still a lot of room for the development of online social interaction in elderly families,especially in rural elderly families.Third,we find that compared with the elderly families in good health,the elderly families with health problems in either side of the health risk couple had significantly lower total assets and total income,and significantly fewer types of risky assets.The proportion of liquidity assets in total assets is on the high side.Well-insured,well-educated households significantly dampened this effect,while households with conservative risk attitudes and in rural areas significantly exacerbated the effect.Fourth,the market participation rate of risk assets of elderly families is extremely low,and the assets held by them have a single structure and an unbalanced proportion.The vast majority of the elderly(82.06%)do not hold any financial assets,and holding stocks is the most common form of financial product allocation among elderly households.However,from the perspective of the proportion of the holding amount to the total household assets,the largest amount is bank financial management.Unlike expectations,the proportion of elderly households holding treasury bonds is the least.In terms of real estate investment,most elderly families only own one set of houses,and about 22.59% of the elderly families hold more than two sets of houses for real estate investment.The real estate investment of elderly families has obvious differences between urban and rural areas.24% of urban elderly families have more than two houses,while the proportion of rural elderly families with more than two houses is only 16%. |
