IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/applec/v58y2026i33p6738-6752.html

Understanding declining household savings rate: a perspective from working hours of married women

Author

Listed:
  • Manman Yao
  • Cuihong Long
  • Yuxin Yao

Abstract

In this paper, we investigate the contribution of married women’s working hours to the declining savings rate in China over the past decade, using the 2018 CLDS data. Both our OLS and 2SLS results suggest that longer working hours of married women generally decrease the household savings rate. Specifically, we identify a non-linear relationship between work time and the household savings rate. Initially, the household savings rate increases with the working hours of married women, reflecting the income effect of labour supply. However, the savings rate decreases once they work overtime, which can be explained by the substitution effect of market work replacing home production, thereby reducing the fertility intention of married women. The reduction in potential child-rearing needs lowers precautionary savings and increases current household consumption. Furthermore, our analysis indicates that, in the presence of income risk, working overtime has a more pronounced effect on the declining savings rate.

Suggested Citation

  • Manman Yao & Cuihong Long & Yuxin Yao, 2026. "Understanding declining household savings rate: a perspective from working hours of married women," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 58(33), pages 6738-6752, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:applec:v:58:y:2026:i:33:p:6738-6752
    DOI: 10.1080/00036846.2025.2526176
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/00036846.2025.2526176
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/00036846.2025.2526176?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:applec:v:58:y:2026:i:33:p:6738-6752. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/RAEC20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.