Nudging towards a better financial future: applying behavioural insights in the development of financial systems in rural China

尽管中国几乎消除了城市贫困，但中国贫困人口总数仍有8200万，其中大部分是农村居民。农村金融的发展对于防止该国进一步两极分化至关重要，因为这种发展在促进农村和城市市场之间的资源流动和支持农业部门的可持续发展方面具有巨大潜力。然而，农村金融是中国金融体系中最薄弱的环节。在金融产品的可获得性、消费者保护和资产积累方面，农村家庭比城市家庭更受限制。农村金融体系的发展面临着需求侧和供给侧的双重阻力。拟议的项目通过调查一种经过验证的行为方法（即自由家长制）在中国农村金融体系发展中的应用来解决这一挑战。这种方法促进了选择架构，在不干扰选择自由的情况下推动人们做出最佳决策。它已经在英国公共政策领域经过了严格的测试和热烈的欢迎。这种做法也符合中国的政治和文化背景，在这种背景下，随着公众日益要求更多的自由，中央政府需要保持对金融体系的严格控制。现有的行为研究严重依赖于实验室实验。虽然越来越多地使用实地研究，但是来自发展中国家的经验证据有限。同时，行为学见解在中国农村经济发展中的应用仍然是一个未知的领域。家庭层面的农村金融研究有限；关于心理和社会因素在农村家庭财务决策中的作用的证据很少。拟议中的项目将弥补这一文献上的空白。本项目的首要研究问题是，行为洞察力是否以及如何用于帮助中国农村居民做出合理的财务决策，这最终将有助于中国经济的可持续发展。该研究将通过在中国农村的实地试验进行。通过实地证据，项目组将为决策者制定政策工具和清单，帮助农户做出合理的财务决策。将为政策制定者开发两类工具，即“推动”工具，旨在使农村家庭短期遵守政策，从而摆脱持续的贫困循环；“拉动”工具，旨在减少农村家庭的欺诈、错误和债务，防止他们重新陷入贫困。最后，项目团队还将利用研究活动和成果，与农村居民、地方政府、监管机构和金融机构进行接触和教育。我们会向有关人士提出标准和良好做法，以设计良好的行为干预措施；将提供道德准则以鼓励良好做法。这一重要步骤确保了该项目的研究成果将有利于学术界和实践，并产生持久的积极影响。这些发现将使行为金融学和经济学、农村经济学、发展经济学、政治学和心理学的研究人员受益。该项目的研究结果和参与将有助于决策者制定具有成本效益的行为改变政策。推动农村家庭做出合理的财务决策和养成健康的理财习惯，将使他们受益。该项目将提供有关如何利用行为学见解来克服发展中国家持续贫困的见解。因此，该研究将引起国内外学术界的兴趣。

Although China has almost eliminated urban poverty, the total number of Chinese citizens in poverty remains at 82 million, most of which are rural residents. The development of rural finance is essential to preventing the country from undergoing further polarization because of the significant potential of such development to facilitate resource interflows between rural and urban markets and to support sustainable development in the agricultural sector. However, rural finance is the weakest point in China's financial systems. Rural households are more constrained than their urban counterparts in terms of financial product availability, consumer protection, and asset accumulation. The development of the rural financial system faces resistance from both the demand and the supply sides. The proposed project addresses this challenge by investigating the applications of a proven behavioural approach, namely, Libertarian Paternalism, in the development of rural financial systems in China. This approach promotes choice architectures to nudge people into optimal decisions without interfering with the freedom of choice. It has been rigorously tested and warmly received in the UK public policy domain. This approach also fits the political and cultural background in China, in which the central government needs to maintain a firm control over financial systems as the general public increasingly demands more freedom.Existing behavioural studies have been heavily reliant on laboratory experiments. Although the use of field studies has been increasing, empirical evidence from the developing world is limited. Meanwhile, the applications of behavioural insights in rural economic development in China remains an uncharted territory. Rural finance studies on the household level are limited; evidence on the role of psychological and social factors in rural households' financial decisions is scarce. The proposed project will bridge this gap in the literature.The overarching research question of this project is whether and how behavioural insights can be used to help rural residents in China make sound financial decisions, which will ultimately contribute to the sustainable economic development in China. The research will be conducted through field experiments in rural China. By relying on field evidences, the project team will develop policy tools and checklists for policy makers to help rural households make sound financial decisions. Two types of tools will be developed for policy makers, namely, "push" tools that aim to achieve short-term policy compliance among rural households so that they can break out of the persistent poverty cycle and "pull" tools that can reduce fraud, error, and debt among rural households to prevent them from falling back into poverty. Finally, the project team will also use the research activities and findings as vehicles to engage and educate rural residents, local governments, regulators, and financial institutions. Standard and good practice will be proposed to interested parties for the designs of good behavioural interventions; ethical guidelines will be provided to encourage good practice. This important step ensures that the findings of this project will benefit academia and practice, with long-lasting, positive impacts. The findings will benefit researchers in behavioural finance and economics, rural economics, development economics, political sciences, and psychology. The findings of and the engagement in this project will help policy makers to develop cost-effective behavioural change policies. Rural households will benefit by being nudged into sound financial decisions and healthy financial habits. The project will provide insights on how to leverage behavioural insights to overcome persistent poverty in the developing world. Therefore, the research will be of interest to communities in China and internationally.