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Article

Open Access

Informal Sector Employment and Consumption Patterns in China

Author(s)

Junzi He; Bo Li

Full-Text PDF Download XML 859 Views

DOI:10.17265/1548-6591/2016.03.002

Affiliation(s)

Central University of Finance and Economics, Beijing, China; Peking University, Beijing, China

ABSTRACT

The paper investigates how workers employed in informal sector will affect household consumption patterns, and how such patterns vary across different income distribution. China Household Finance Survey (CHFS) dataset is well qualified for this research and empirical results show that families where wives are informal employed tend to reduce their expenditure on time-saving goods and time-consuming goods, while there is a significant raise if the husbands are informal employed. For necessities, families with wives working in formal sector enjoy much better fringe benefits. Richest families are not as much constrained as those in poorest families due to less budget constraint as well as time constraint. In addition, concerning the demographic characteristics of the household members, especially the educational attainment, both female and male spouse have positive impacts on the time-saving and time-intensive goods, while there is not significant effect on time-neutral goods. The presence and age of children in the household have a significant effect on time-saving goods. The household subjective factors play an important role on expenditure on time-saving goods, especially for the poorest household.

KEYWORDS

informal sector employment, consumption pattern, income quantile, empirical analysis

Cite this paper

Journal of US-China Public Administration, March 2016, Vol. 13, No. 3, 156-165

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