The Singapore Economic Review

In this paper, we attempt to shed light on whether Japanese households are rational or if their behavior is influenced by culture and social norms by examining their saving and bequest behavior. To summarize our main findings, we find that Japan’s household saving rate showed great volatility, was often low and even negative and was high only during the 25-year period from around 1960 until the mid-1980s (if we exclude the war years) and that we can explain the high level of, and trends over time in, Japan’s household saving rate via various socioeconomic and policy variables. This seems to suggest that the Japanese are not a saving-loving people and that their saving behavior is not governed by culture and social norms. Moreover, the bequest behavior of the Japanese suggests that they are less altruistic toward their children and less reliant on their children than other peoples, suggesting that the alleged social norm of strong family ties in Japan is largely a myth, and that the Japanese do not appear to be appreciably more concerned about the continuation of the family line or the family business than other peoples, suggesting that the influence of the “ie” (family) system is apparently not so pervasive either. However, we argue that these findings do not necessarily mean that culture and social norms do not matter.

Data from the Consumer Expenditure Survey (2003–2014) were used to both investigate trends in Asian American middle class status attainment before, during, and after the Great Recession and compare such attainment to that of non-Hispanic Whites. Using three different operational definitions of the middle class, we show that middle class size estimates during recession and post-recession were lower than pre-recession estimates for both Asian Americans and Whites. For all three periods, Asian Americans were substantially less likely to have achieved middle class status compared with Whites. The racial gap did not narrow or widen due to the Great Recession. Our analysis also found that basic demographic and socioeconomic differences explained a little over a quarter of this middle class attainment gap.

This study examines the differences in credit card behaviors between rural and urban households in China. Using data from a national survey of Chinese households, results show distinct differences between rural and urban respondents in credit card adoption and usage even after controlling for relevant demographic, financial, attitude, and expectation variables. Rural households are less likely to possess a credit card, possibly due to supply side limitations such as lack of financial institutions and low rate of credit card acceptance in rural areas. No urban–rural difference is found in credit card payment behavior. Implications for policymakers and credit card issuers are discussed.

Research on consumer financial capability is important for consumer financial wellbeing and emerging in the literature. However, studies on consumer financial capability in the Chinese context remain limited. To fill up the research gap, we used data from the 2011 China Household Finance Survey to investigate whether employment type and residential status were associated with consumer financial capability in China. Consumer financial capability was measured by the range of financial assets. Results from OLS and Poisson regressions showed that people employed in the government-managed system, with urban residence registration and with non-local rural residence registration had a better financial capability than their respective counterparts. The results have policy implications for improving consumer financial education and supporting vulnerable consumers.

Most of the official data are released with a lag period, which increases the difficulties for decision-makers assessing the situation. To solve the problem of data lag, we used real-time Baidu Index to nowcast the Chinese consumer behavior of buying the best-selling smartphone, Huawei Mate 7. We introduced keywords like “Mate 7” and “Huawei” in Baidu Index search queries to examine whether the introduction of real-time data can improve the efficiency of benchmark model. Overall, our finding is that the introduction of Baidu Index, both in-sample and out-of-sample, can improve the prediction accuracy of the model significantly. The extended model provided a 55.2% outperformance relative to benchmark one. This can not only make up for official data release lag, but also help firms gain near-real-time insight into the consumer demand trends and reduce inventory costs. The findings suggest that firms can improve marketing performance by use of search engine promotion campaign.

We examined the gender gap between wives and husbands with regard to time spent on unpaid housework and the interaction terms between home appliance ownership and gender among 36,480 Vietnamese households. We found the gender gap was persistent regardless of number of co-residing children, age cohorts, household size and income, working status of the couples, and whether a wife had a higher wage rate (education) than her husband. The gender gap of time increased with the appearance of home appliances such as gas cookers. A lower probability of husbands doing housework and changes in gender values could be important explanations.

The purpose of this paper is to examine Malaysian motorists’ willingness to pay for Chinese lucky plate numbers. Regression analyses reveal that the Chinese bidders are more likely to win and pay significantly more for the Chinese lucky numbers than their non-Chinese counterparts. Consistent with resale motive considerations, the non-Chinese bidders impose the same discount for unlucky numbers as their Chinese counterparts but do not pay a premium for the lucky numbers. We also document the influence of peer effects on the winning bid price. Specifically, Chinese bidders tend to pay more for the same plate numbers won by their peers in the previous auction, whereas both Chinese and non-Chinese bidders are less averse to the unlucky numbers if there are precedents of such ownership among their peers. Overall, our findings suggest that policymakers and marketers need to be sensitive to the subtle differences in the cultural cues of consumers in a multiracial society such as Malaysia.

We analyze the consumption inequality in India among different caste groups namely SC, ST, OBC and Others using three rounds of Household Level Consumption Expenditure Survey Data from 1993–94 to 2009–10. Regression analysis shows disparity in consumption expenditure across various caste groups. Values of Gini coefficient, Theil’s Index and overlapping index display an increasing trend in both within- and between-group inequality over time. The possibility of stratification among “Others” is identified. It is found that SCs and STs in particular bear the burden of increasing inequality, indicating possible inefficient implementation of the welfare schemes aimed at these communities.

Between 2006 and 2008, 9% of Korean households had an income decrease of 50% or more, a rate almost identical to the U.S. despite the much lower impact of the global financial crisis on Korea. We ran a logistic regression to determine factors related to the likelihood of a substantial income decrease between 2006 and 2008 for Korean households. The likelihood of a substantial decrease was low for households below the 75th percentile of 2006 income, probably due to differences in composition of income. Households with college education were less likely than those without college to have a substantial decrease.

Since the economic consequences of a low fertility rate, such as a change in consumption patterns, might affect the path of economic growth, this study investigates how the relationship between the low fertility rate and consumption behavior in Taiwan has changed over time. Using county-level panel data from 1995 to 2014 to examine the impact of the low fertility rate on the consumption behavior of households in Taiwan, the major finding of this study is that a low fertility rate will change the behavior and the composition of consumption. A low fertility rate will increase the share of the total consumption expenditure in a household’s disposable income, in particular, in relation to the consumption categories of food, health care, education, and transportation and communication, but will decrease the share of expenditure on clothing in the household’s disposable income.

Globalization has caused many countries to experience significant slowdown, thus, tourism development becomes the primary policy to stimulate the economy. Investigating the demand of leisure activities is necessary for the development of a tourism industry with sound policies. This research adopts demographic data to allocate the factors affecting participation decisions and utilizes semi-nonparametric (SNP) regressions to analyze household decision regarding domestic and international trips. By combining a parametric component with a nonparametric component, the SNP method increases the flexibility of participation decision models from relaxing distributional assumptions. The results of this study reveal that decision-making for both domestic and international trips is jointly determined. Various factors, including income, capital gain ratio, age and education, are decisive to trip types, indicating the market segmentation of tourism businesses. Moreover, SNP regression performs superior to the traditional bivariate probit model, suggesting that the model developed in this research can provide comprehensive results for policy implications.

With the recent education reforms in Hong Kong, students with special education needs (SEN) are gradually returning to mainstream schools. There are high expectations on the next generation, especially in terms of education achievements to build a successful path for growth; however, when children have SEN that affect their learning, what problems are faced by their working mothers? Findings provide an overview of the latest work–family conflict situation faced by working mothers of children with SEN. Given the financial burden, they suffer from high work–family conflict, as they are forced to work but are also required to spend more time helping their children.

It is commonly accepted that purchasing a home is one of the most important decisions that people can make in their lifetimes, and that perception types of home-buying decisions are critical constructs in housing market research. However, despite the large body of extant literature that has examined objective factors determining housing demand, few have analyzed home-purchase intention from a subjective perspective using a cross-sectional approach. To fill this research gap, this paper aims to distinguish and compare different perception types of home buying in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the USA by using Q methodology, which utilizes subjective views and perceptions to capture general responses to a phenomenon. After analyzing the 30 samples of home buyers selected from each of these three areas being surveyed, the research results demonstrate that most home buyers in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the USA are aggressive investors, pragmatists and lifelong financial planners, respectively.