The Driving Factors Of Urban Households' Debt Choice And The Influences On Happiness

Debt is an important tool for family to smooth cross-term consumption,but it also reduces the risk resistance of the family.With the rapid development of China's economy and financial markets,China's household debt levels have increased rapidly since 2008,and the mortgage has become the main part in household debt.As the main bearer of housing loans,the impact of debt on urban households has gradually aroused the attention of the society and the academic community.This paper mainly uses the China Family Panel Studies(CFPS)to study the impact factors behind different debt behaviors of urban families.The study found that the households' characteristics have important influences on debt choice,like net asset,income,and so on.In the meanwhile,household owners' personal characteristics,such as age and education have significant influence on different types of debts,too.Debt behavior has some influence on the happiness of urban residents.The empirical study found that,the mortgage loans and happiness has certain negative effect,and the effect mainly concentrated in the lower income and low education group.Informal debt will significantly reduce happiness,but it has little to do with the amount of debt.The middle income group and the low education group feel the most negative influence on informal debt.The bank loans(excluding mortgage)have no significant effect on the happiness of the whole sample,but bank loans have a certain positive effect on the happiness of the highly educated group.This article studies the impact of different types of debt on the happiness of urban residents,and discusses in detail the heterogeneity impact on different groups of people.It has implications for household debt choice and financial policy development.