LAUSR

With China’s rise in the global economy, more couples participate in financial investing. Using the 2011 China Household Finance Survey, we examined factors influencing stock and fixed-income investments in the cities. Couples with urban residency were more likely to invest than couples without urban residency. Compared to traditional couples with highly-educated husbands only, couples with only highly-educated wives invested similarly, whereas couples with two highly- (less-) educated spouses were more (less) likely to invest. Further, we investigated how these relationships were mediated by household income and wealth, financial literacy, information acquisition, and risk tolerance. Overall, our findings suggest that household investing is shaped by both family structure (i.e., spouses’ educational pairing) and institutional advantage (indicated by urban residency).