The study conducted by Macquarie University in Sydney examined the savings habits of low, middle and high income earners in three countries and found that religious people and those of Chinese heritage were more likely to save money.
Having a high income makes it easier to save for obvious reasons, but Associate Professor Chris Baumann from Macquarie University said the high earners aren't always the biggest savers.
"We cannot just naively assume the more somebody earns, the more they will save or the less they will save, it's much more complex," he said.
"We need to understand cultural backgrounds and religion, for example."
These are the areas highlighted in the study which compared the spending and saving habits of Caucasian consumers with Chinese populations in mainland China, Australia and Canada.
Typically Caucasians save roughly 15 per cent of their income each year, while first-generation Chinese people in Australia are likely to save up to 40 per cent.
The report also found that second- generation Chinese people in Australia save more than 45 per cent.
The research found middle-income earners with a religious background tend to save more.
"For the religious and non-religious group there's practically no difference when the income is very low, they'd be living in a very, very similar ways," Prof Baumann said.
"When we look at the middle-income group, we can see there's a big difference where the non-religious save much, much less and the religious group saves much, much more, possibly because they're restrained from spending for general consumption or entertainment.
"When the income is very high, we see a very big difference in the opposite direction. So we see the religious group all of a sudden saving very low, very little, meaning they spend much, much more and we see the opposite for the non- religious group."
The study found people of Chinese heritage tended to save more than their Caucasian counterparts.
The study authors believe this was partly related to cultural considerations such as Confucianism, which puts an emphasis on being frugal and having financial security.
The Australia-China Business Council, which promotes trade between the two countries, said these cultural differences were important to understand for people doing business in China.
Chief Executive Helen Sawczak said Chinese people liked to spend more time getting to know potential business partners before striking deals.
She said a non-confrontational approach and plenty of patience were crucial when doing business in China.
"They obviously have the concept of losing face, whereas in the west we tend to engage in very robust and tough negotiations," she said.
"In China, the way of doing business and negotiating is very non-confrontational for fear of losing face so you need to adapt. We often advise our members to actually adopt a more conciliatory way of doing business when negotiating with Chinese counterparts."
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