The Impact of Credit Behavior on Rural Household Consumption Structure

Using 2013—2019 China Household Finance Survey panel data, this paper analyzes the impact of households’ formal and informal borrowing behavior on rural household consumption structure and examines urban-rural heterogeneity. The research results show that: the occurrence and scale of household formal and informal credit both promote rural household consumption. Rural household credit behavior is conducive to improving the quality of rural household consumption and promoting the transformation and upgrading of consumption structure, Specifically, this promotion has the greatest effect on development consumption, followed by enjoyment consumption, and survival consumption. Moreover, the role of formal credit is greater than that of informal credit. In China, both formal credit and informal credit, together with urban household consumption, play a greater role in promoting rural household consumption. Based on the above conclusions, this paper believes that on the basis of establishing a standardized and good personal credit environment, we should focus on supporting rural households’ formal credit, ease their credit constraints, improve rural residents’ financial literacy and the social security system, so as to promote rural household consumption, transformation and upgrading.