Women Can Hold Up Half the Sky: The Impact of Women’s Bargaining Power on Household Financial Asset Allocation

With the enhancing status of women in the world, their bargaining power within households has an increasingly significant influence on household financial decision-making. Using data from the China Household Finance Survey (CHFS), this study examines the impact of women’s bargaining power on private lending. The results reveal that: First, women’s bargaining power significantly enhances both the probability of engaging in private lending and the scale of such lending. Second, regional and income heterogeneity analysis indicates that this effect is more pronounced in households located south of the Qinling-Huaihe Line and among high-income groups. Third, mechanism analysis shows that women’s bargaining power improves private lending through three channels: (1) strengthening social network relationships, (2) increasing working hours, (3) changing risk awareness. Notably, the number of elderly household members has a reverse moderating effect in the mechanism path of social network relationships and risk awareness, suggesting a substitution relationship between the number of elderly people and women’s bargaining power.