中国城镇家庭结婚消费演变研究:1980-2010年代

The Evolution of Urban Marriage Consumption in China: 1980s-2010s

本文采用深度访谈与问卷调查相结合的方式,调查了1200多个家庭,重点考察1980年代到2010年代我国城镇家庭结婚消费的演变。研究发现:(1)以婚房和大件耐用品购买为核心的间接费用是推动总体结婚费用快速增长的根本性力量;(2)结婚费用中由新婚夫妇支付的比例趋于下降,由男女双方原生家庭支付的比重趋于上升;(3)结婚费用中由男方家庭支付的比例远超女方家庭支付的比例,且两者差距有扩大趋势;(4)长期而言婚宴消费在直接结婚消费中的比重有下降趋势。本文基于婚姻市场信息不对称以及女性处于更不利的信息不对称状况,运用“信号投资理论”对男方家庭为何支付更多的结婚费用做了初步解释。

This paper employed in-depth interviews and questionnaire surveys to investigate the evolution of marriage consumption of urban families in China since 1980’s.The findings are as follows:(1) average marriage expenses per family was rising and it was mainly caused by the substantial growth of indirect cost of marriage,like real estate and large household appliances purchases for marriage which accounted for nearly 90% of the total marriage expenses;(2) the percentage of total marriage expenses paid by newlyweds is trending downwards;meanwhile,the expenses borne by the families of newlyweds is increasing;(3) the percentage of total marriage expenses borne by the families of bridegrooms is much higher than the percentage borne by the families of brides and the gap is gradually enlarged;(4) in the long run the share of wedding feasts in direct marriage consumption is decreasing.We give a tentative explanation to the phenomenon why bridegrooms’ parental families pay much more marriage cost than brides’ families do by using signal investment theory.