A Comparative Study of Saving Behaviour Between India and China

Abstract

This study attempts to understand the determinants of saving behaviour using the Global Findex micro-database of India and China. Further, this study has also tried to identify the gender gap in saving behaviour for both the countries. Empirical (pooled logistic regression) results suggest that being rich, educated, employed and old favour saving than others. Women are more prone to save informally than men. The main contribution of this article is the analytical comparison between India and China, which demonstrates that in terms of saving Chinese adults are ahead of Indian adults. However, informal saving is more prevalent in India. The gender gap in saving behaviour is higher in China than in India. Our research also discovered that China’s age saving pattern is U-shaped, that is, younger and older are more likely to save than the middle-aged, which contradicts the standard life cycle model whereas this model holds for India.