The salience of children to household financial decisions

Theoretical and empirical evidence have long acknowledged that children affect the financial decisions of their parents. However, the literature is limited to the study of the impact of dependent children. This study examines the impact of both dependent and independent children on key financial decisions of Chinese parents using data on over 20,000 individuals from the 2016 Wave of the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS). We demonstrate how number, gender, and age of children could influence parents' financial decisions differently through the various stages of their parenthood. Our findings highlight the strong and persistent saving for children motive in Chinese households.