科举制传统和家庭股票市场参与

The Imperial Examination System Tradition and Household Stock Market Participation

历史因素会对当前的经济结果产生重要作用,但尚未有文献探索科举制传统对家庭金融市场参与的长期影响。使用清代的进士密度代理科举制,我们发现科举制传统深厚地区的家庭当前的股市参与概率和参与深度更低。使用清代到最近的印刷中心的距离作为进士密度的工具变量,我们验证了科举制传统与股市参与之间关系的稳健性。我们同时识别了背后可能的作用机制是对金融教育消极的态度和金融知识的欠缺,而不是非认知能力和风险态度的改变。

Research has taken a historical perspective when explaining contemporary economic outcomes. But little has focused on the relationship between the imperial examination system tradition and financial market participation. Using Jinshi density during Qing Dynasty to proxy for the tradition, we demonstrate that households in prefectures with deep imperial examination system tradition have lower probability and depth of stock market participation. Instrumenting Jinshi density with the distance to the nearest printing center further proves that the adverse relationship is robust. Finally, we identify that passive attitudes towards financial education and the lack of financial literacy instead of the changes in non-cognitive ability and risk attitudes, can be the potential channels.