Social trust and risky financial market participation: Evidence from China

The Chinese government has promoted the development of risky financial markets under the market-oriented reform period. Meanwhile, social trust has changed with institutional transitions. This study investigates the influence of social trust on risky financial market participation in China based on the national longitudinal data of 2014-2018. It also estimates the effects of social trust by education, age, urban/rural hukou resident groups, and periods. The empirical results indicate that social trust positively affects the probability of holding risky financial assets and their shares. However, these effects turn insignificant when accounting for unobservable individual heterogeneity. The positive effect of social trust is more pronounced among the younger generation, highly educated groups, women, and urban hukou residents compared to their counterparts. Additionally, the positive impact of social trust is observed to be stronger in the period following the 2015 stock market crash shock than in the period before 2015.