Associate Professor Nan Gao,a researcher of the Base,has published a collaborative paper titled "Social capital, finance, and consumption: Evidence from a representative sample of Chinese households" in Journal of Banking & Finance

Abstract:

Using a sample of Chinese households, we study how a type of social capital, private social networks, affects access to credit and its implications for consumption. We find a strong and likely causal link between private social networks, use of informal credit, and household consumption. Informal credit via private social networks facilitates household consumption especially for households that experienced a recent health shock, that face financial constraints, and that do not have access to formal finance, and the effects are more pronounced in poor regions and rural areas.

Key Words: Informal finance, Social capital, Consumption

Link: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378426622002175

Teacher Profile

Nan Gao is associate professor and deputy dean of Wenlan School, Zhongnan University of Economics and Law. His research interests include development economics, political economy and family finance. His research results have been published in Economic Research Jounal, Journal of Management World, China Economic Quarterly, The Journal of World Economy, Research Management, Journal of Banking and Finance, China Economic Review, Review of Development Economics, Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, CITIES and other journals. He presided over a National Natural Science Foundation of China and the Humanities and Social Science Foundation of the Ministry of Education. His research achievements won the eighth Youth Achievement Award for Outstanding Scientific Research Achievements of higher education institutions.