Impact of self-control on individual income: evidence from China

Figures & data

Figure 1. The two-stage model of self-control and income.

Source: Adapted from Myrseth and Fishbach (2009).

Figure 2. The dual-systems model of self-control and income.

Source: Adapted from Hofmann et al. (2009).

Table 1. Definition of variables and descriptive statistics.

Variable	Definition	Mean	SD	Min	Max
Income	Annual income of respondent in 2013 (yuan)	33500.4	89313.3	100	5930000
Self-control	Self-control ability, = 1 if weak, = 2 if normal, and = 3 if strong	1.927	0.455	1	3
Male	= 1 if gender is male	0.551		0	1
Age	Years	46.846	11.768	18	70
Poor health	= 1 if poor health	0.359		0	1
Fair health	= 1 if fair health	0.420		0	1
Good health	= 1 if good health	0.220		0	1
Education	Years of schooling education of respondent	8.903	4.375	0	23
Foreign language	= 1 if knowing one or more foreign languages	0.121		0	1
Skill	= 1 if has one or more occupational qualification certificates	0.154		0	1
Household registration	= 1 if a respondent had non-agricultural household registration at birth	0.177		0	1
Member of CPC	= 1 if respondent is the member of the Communist Party of China (CPC)	0.097		0	1
Acquaintance	The number of acquaintances of respondent	13.923	43.513	0	1000
Working industry	The working industry of respondent	—	—	—	—
Region	Respondent’s province	—	—	—	—

Source: created by authors.

Table 6. Conley et al. (2012) plausibly exogenous bounds.

Variables	(1) UCI	(2) LTZ
Self-control	(0.1755, 0.3911)	(0.1730, 0.3899)
Control variables	YES	YES

Notes: The estimator of the lower bound and the upper bound for the coefficient of self-control variable is shown in parentheses with a 95% significance level.

Source: created by authors.

Figure 3. Moderating effect of age and gender on the impact of self-control on income.

Source: created by authors.

Figure 4. Mediating effect of education on the impact of self-control on income.

Source: created by authors.

Figure 5. Average annual income of individuals with different levels of self-control.

Source: created by authors.

Table 2. Impact of self-control on income.

Variables	(1) OLS	(2) OLS	(3) IV-2SLS	(4) IV-2SLS	(5) IV-2SLS
Self-control	0.0648***	0.0476**	0.4272***	0.2835**	0.2732***
	(0.0239)	(0.0225)	(0.1491)	(0.1319)	(0.0525)
Male		0.3674***		0.3764***	0.3760***
		(0.0200)		(0.0207)	(0.0176)
Age		−0.0072***		−0.0075***	−0.0075***
		(0.0014)		(0.0014)	(0.0009)
Age square		−0.0013***		−0.0012***	−0.0012***
		(0.0001)		(0.0001)	(0.0001)
Fair health		0.1960***		0.1982***	0.1981***
		(0.0278)		(0.0278)	(0.0191)
Good health		0.2883***		0.2765***	0.2770***
		(0.0336)		(0.0343)	(0.0225)
Education		0.0450***		0.0442***	0.0442***
		(0.0052)		(0.0052)	(0.0029)
Foreign language		0.0705**		0.0656**	0.0658**
		(0.0312)		(0.0321)	(0.0261)
Skill		0.1408***		0.1329***	0.1332***
		(0.0251)		(0.0255)	(0.0221)
Household registration		0.1253***		0.1250***	0.1250***
		(0.0344)		(0.0350)	(0.0219)
Member of CPC		0.0965***		0.0906***	0.0908***
		(0.0282)		(0.0283)	(0.0274)
Acquaintance		0.0002		0.0002	0.0002
		(0.0003)		(0.0003)	(0.0002)
Work industry	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES
Region	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES
Constant	8.8031***	8.7870***	8.1080***	8.3500***	8.3693***
	(0.0839)	(0.1329)	(0.2987)	(0.2833)	(0.1128)
R-squared	0.2912	0.3968	0.2715	0.3885	0.3892

Notes: Standard errors in parentheses. *** p < 0.01, ** p < 0.05.

Source: created by authors.

Figure 6. The average marginal effect of self-control on income with different age.

Source: created by authors.

Figure 7. Average marginal effect of self-control on income for males and females.

Note: On the x-axis, 0 represents women, and 1 represents men.

Source: created by authors.

Table 3. Mediating effect of education in self-control impacting income.

	Education
Indirect effect	0.0067** (0.0026)
Direct effect	0.0476*** (0.0180）

Notes: Standard errors in parentheses. *** p < 0.01, ** p < 0.05.

Source: created by authors.

Table 4. IV-quantile regression of impact of self-control on income.

Variables	10^th	25^th	50^th	75^th	90^th
Self-control	0.250***	0.307***	0.187***	0.160**	0.208**
	(0.096)	(0.074)	(0.067)	(0.074)	(0.095)
Control variables	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES

Notes: Standard errors in parentheses. *** p < 0.01, ** p < 0.05.

Source: created by authors.

Table 5. IV-2SLS regression of sub-sample with self-control as classification criterion.

Variables	(1) Self-control = 3 is omitted	(2) Self-control = 1 is omitted
Self-control	0.3875*	0.5498*
	(0.2252)	(0.3155)
Control variables	YES	YES
N	12,169	11,219
R-squared	0.3868	0.3863

Notes: Standard errors in parentheses. * p < 0.1.

Source: created by authors.

Table 7. Impact of self-control on income using the CLDS2016 data.

Variables	(1) OLS	(2) IV-2SLS
Self-control	0.0144***	0.7272***
	(0.0053)	(0.1889)
Control variables	YES	YES
R-squared	0.0454	0.3819
N	13,227

Notes: Standard errors in parentheses. *** p < 0.01.

Source: created by authors.

Table 8. Impact of self-control on wage income using data of 2016.

Variables	(1) OLS	(2) IV-2SLS
Self-control	0.0174** (0.0073)	0.8326*** (0.1905)
Control variables	YES	YES
R-squared	0.0551	0.2777
Kleibergen-Paap rk LM statistic	169.075
Cragg-Donald Wald F statistic	240.993
Kleibergen-Paap rk Wald F statistic	188.651
N	7,915

Notes: Standard errors in parentheses. *** p < 0.01, ** p < 0.05.

Source: created by authors.

Myrseth, K. O. R., & Fishbach, A. (2009). Self-control: A function of knowing when and how to exercise restraint. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 18(4), 247–252. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8721.2009.01645.x

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Hofmann, W., Friese, M., & Strack, F. (2009). Impulse and self-control from a dual-systems perspective. Perspectives on Psychological Science: A Journal of the Association for Psychological Science, 4(2), 162–176. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-6924.2009.01116.x

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Conley, T. G., Hansen, C. B., & Rossi, P. E. (2012). Plausibly exogenous. Review of Economics and Statistics, 94(1), 260–272. https://doi.org/10.1162/REST_a_00139

 Web of Science ®Google Scholar