Economic Risk of Chinese Households: Measurement, Trends, and Implications

ABSTRACT Understanding and quantifying household economic risk constitutes a critical research agenda in financial economics. This systematic review evaluates methodological approaches to assess household economic vulnerabilities through both individual and composite indicators. Leveraging longitudinal data from the China Household Finance Survey (CHFS), we develop a tripartite measurement framework encompassing financial fragility, poverty vulnerability, and insolvency risk. Through comprehensive descriptive analysis, we examine the evolving patterns, spatial distribution, and demographic characteristics of economic risks in Chinese households from 2011 to 2023. We find that while households poverty vulnerability has experienced a marked decline, financial fragility, and insolvency risk have shown a concurrent rise. Furthermore, economic risk demonstrates significant group heterogeneity, with rural households, western households, aging households, less educated households, less healthy households and private‐sector employed households exhibiting higher vulnerability metrics compared with their counterparties.