Confucian Culture,Household Social Donation,and Common Prosperity
Few relevant studies focus on the ways that Confucian culture affect household social donation and common prosperity based on micro-data from China,which is of great practical significance.Based on the micro-data of China Family Panel Studies(CFPS)from 2010 to 2020,employing the number of Confucian temple,Jinshi in Qing Dynasty,and Confucian academy at the city level,which are complementary with each other,to measure the local prevalence of Confucian culture,this paper systematically explores the effect of Confucian culture on household social donation and common prosperity.Primary findings are as following:Firstly,Confucian culture significantly promotes household social donation,indicating that Confucian culture increases household social donation propensity and enlarges household social donation scale.Moreover,the coefficients of interest remain robust after various tests,including using alternative measures,controlling the potential interference from local other cultural trait,replacing the research sample,instrumental variable method,placebo test,etc.Secondly,the potential mechanism analysis finds that Confucian culture promotes household social donation through the channels of subjective well-being,life satisfaction,and the feelings of belonging to the nation.Thirdly,the heterogeneity test indicates that the impacts of Confucian culture on household social donation are heterogeneous across different regions and different kinds of household.Fourthly,moderating effect test shows that disparity between rich and poor strengthens the positive impact of Confucian culture on household social donation while neighborhood effect and the level of opening to the outside world weakens the positive impact of Confucian culture on household social donation.Fifthly,further study indicates that Confucian culture significantly reduces the degree of income inequality and promotes common prosperity by promoting household social donation.Finally,based on primary findings,we bring forward corresponding policy suggestions,including vigorously promoting Confucian culture,improving the quality and effect of development of inclusive finance,incubating and cultivating charitable organization,and constantly improving the coverage of medical insurance.The marginal contribution of this article are manifold:Firstly,based on the dual perspectives of household social donation propensity and household social donation scale,this paper systematically proves the role of Confucian culture in affecting household social donation for the first time.This micro-evidence supplements empirical studies concerning household social donation,and proves the substantial impact of Confucian culture,as an informal institution,on household social donation.Secondly,the use of widely representative data of CFPS and the structure of the longitudinal family panel data allow this paper to systematically explore the micro-mechanisms that Confucian culture affects household social donation and to reveal three effective paths through which Confucian culture affects household social donation.Thirdly,this paper supplements the literature focusing on the impact of Confucian culture on family economic decision-making that has emerged in recent years.Most of the existing studies focus on the impact of Confucian culture on household saving rate and household allocation of risky assets.This paper extends and supplements the literature on the impact of Confucian culture on household economic decision-making from the unique perspective of household social donation(including household social donation propensity and household social donation scale).Fourthly,this paper proves that Confucian culture could both promote household social donation and reduce the income inequality,revealing the importance of Confucian culture in contributing to the development of charity in the process of striving for common prosperity.
Confucian cultureHousehold social donationCommon prosperity
万方数据
维普
