Health Shocks,Financial Micro-Penetration,and Risky Financial Asset Allocation For Middle-aged And Older Households

The income of resident households has grown steadily in recent years,their financial awareness has increased significantly,household investment concepts have evolved with the times,the financial environment has improved and financial products have diversified and become more complex.At the same time,with the increasing trend of ageing and experiencing the new coronavirus disease spreading globally,health issues have become an important factor affecting household investment decisions.Research on household asset allocation can not only help households to increase the rationality of their asset allocation,but also help the financial market to improve the relevant laws and regulations.Previous studies have analysed the impact of health risks or the macro financial environment on household risk asset allocation alone.However,there is a lack of research on the relationship between their three components.Therefore,this paper takes a micro perspective and takes middle-aged and elderly households as the research object,taking health shocks and micro financial penetration as the entry point to analyse the following two issues in depth: first,the impact of health shocks and financial micro penetration on risky financial asset allocation of middle-aged and elderly households and their impact mechanisms;second,the possible moderating role of financial micro penetration in the impact of health shocks on household risky asset allocation.Firstly,this paper analyses the current situation of household asset allocation and China’s household health status,and compares the relevant research literature at home and abroad.Secondly,a basic conceptual definition and theoretical analysis of health shocks,financial micro-penetration and household risky financial asset allocation are presented,so as to propose three impact mechanisms of health shocks and the moderating mechanism of financial micro-penetration.The regression results show that: First,health shocks affect the allocation of risky financial assets of middle-aged and elderly households through the "income effect","crowding-out effect",and "financial micro-penetration effect".The regression results show that: firstly,health shocks suppress risky financial asset allocation of middle-aged and elderly households through the "income effect","crowding-out effect" and "sentiment effect" channels;secondly,financial micro-penetration increases risky financial asset allocation of middle-aged and elderly households;thirdly,financial micropenetration mitigates the impact of health shocks on middle-aged and elderly households.Thirdly,financial micro-penetration mitigates the impact of health shocks on the risky financial asset allocation of middle-aged and elderly households and plays a moderating role;fourthly,there is some heterogeneity in the impact of urban-rural,gender of household head and region on the risky asset allocation of households.Based on the findings of the study,it is concluded that in order to activate China’s financial market,it is necessary to actively improve investment platforms,smooth investment channels,enrich the types of financial products,improve the quality of financial services and increase the popularisation of investment concepts and financial knowledge.At the same time,although the coverage rate of medical insurance in China is already substantial,existing research shows that under a full-coverage social security system,health shocks do not have an impact on household asset allocation,so there is still a need to continue to improve China’s medical insurance system,optimise the medical insurance system,improve the protection capacity of medical insurance and further optimise China’s financial environment...