Search Results (23)

Micro-enterprises are vital to the European economy, including in Croatia, where they make over 88% of the total number of businesses. Despite their significance, they face substantial energy vulnerability due to factors like small size, limited financial resources, and high energy costs. This paper investigates the determinants of energy vulnerability among Croatian micro-enterprises, employing a survey of 470 micro-enterprises. The study covers firms across all Croatian NUTS2 regions and ensures geographic and sectoral representativeness. Key findings reveal that enterprises with higher energy expenditures relative to revenue are most susceptible to energy vulnerability, which is aligned with our assumption. On the other hand, businesses that own their premises, have more employees, and have been operational longer are more likely to invest in energy efficiency measures, thereby reducing vulnerability. Notably, a significant proportion of micro-enterprises report that energy costs adversely affect their household finances, highlighting the nature of business and personal economic stability. The paper underscores the need for targeted policies and support mechanisms to enhance the energy-related resilience of micro-enterprises, considering their unique structural and financial constraints. Full article

In Latin America, over 50% of the population has relied on loans from family members or friends, reflecting the importance of trust-based networks in response to financial exclusion. This study examines how distrust in the formal financial system influences the use of informal borrowing. Using data from 17 countries for the years 2014, 2017, and 2021, and applying a fixed-effects logistic regression model by country and time, we confirm that rising distrust significantly increases the likelihood of turning to loans from personal networks. This relationship intensifies in times of crisis. Beyond this, we find that macroeconomic variables such as GDP per capita and unemployment also significantly affect informal borrowing behavior. This research contributes to the literature by integrating institutional, economic, and social variables, highlighting the role of interpersonal trust as a form of social capital. It also advances the field of personal finance by revealing an everyday strategy of financial resilience. Finally, this study offers relevant implications for public policy, advocating for a more realistic and context-sensitive approach to financial inclusion, especially in regions where credit constraints in the formal sector have pushed households to seek more accessible and flexible alternatives. Full article

This paper analyzes the 1/3 Financial Rule, a method of allocating income equally among debt repayment, savings, and living expenses. Through mathematical modeling, game theory, behavioral finance, and technological analysis, we examine the rule’s potential for supporting household financial stability and reducing bankruptcy risk. The research develops theoretical foundations using utility maximization theory, demonstrating how equal allocation emerges as a solution under standard economic assumptions. The game-theoretic analysis explores the rule’s effectiveness across different household structures, revealing potential strategic advantages in financial decision-making. We investigate psychological factors influencing financial choices, including cognitive biases and neurobiological mechanisms that impact economic behavior. Technological approaches, such as AI-driven personalization, blockchain tracking, and smart contract applications, are examined for their potential to support financial planning. Empirical validation using U.S. Census data and longitudinal studies assesses the rule’s performance across various household types. Stress testing under different economic conditions provides insights into its adaptability and resilience. The research integrates mathematical analysis with behavioral insights and technological perspectives to develop a comprehensive approach to household financial management. Full article

Household savings are a long-term financial issue that can undermine the financial well-being of American families if not addressed. This study examines financial planning strategies through the Behavioral Life-Cycle (BLCH) hypothesis, focusing on long-term savings goals, financial safety nets, and foreseeable expenses. Using data from the 2022 Survey of Consumer Finances, a moderated mediation model explores how financial safety nets, self-control, and mental accounting influence saving habits. The findings show that long-term savings goals significantly mediate the relationship between financial safety nets and saving habits, while foreseeable expenses do not significantly moderate this relationship. These results highlight the importance of goal setting in promoting saving behaviors, regardless of specific financial needs. Policymakers can leverage these findings to design initiatives that encourage structured savings programs, while financial advisors should emphasize goal-setting strategies to help households improve their financial security. This research contributes to a deeper understanding of the behavioral and economic factors that drive personal savings, offering valuable insights for both policymakers and financial practitioners aiming to boost financial well-being in households. Full article

This paper reexamines the question of gender differences in financial relative risk aversion using updated methods and data. Specifically, the paper revisits the 1998 work “Are women more risk averse?” by Jianakoplos and Bernasek, suggests refinements in their model in relation to the database used, namely the U.S. Federal Reserve Board’s Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF), and performs new tests on the latest SCF from 2022. The suggested refinements pertain first to an enhanced computation of wealth, which includes additional categories of assets such as 401(k)s or other thrift savings accounts, and second to the more subtle handling and consideration of specific demographic data of the SCF respondents. Unlike the original study, which also included married couples, the new study focuses exclusively on single-headed (never-married) households. This eliminates ambiguity about the actual financial decision maker in households, enabling a clearer assessment of individual gendered behavior. Following the refinements, the new tests reveal a continuing pattern of decreasing relative risk aversion; however, contrary to the 1998 findings, there is no significant gender difference in financial relative risk aversion in 2022. This study also documents that education levels strongly influence risk-taking: single women with higher education levels are more likely to hold risky assets, while for men, higher education correlates with less risk-taking. The paper concludes by informing policymakers and financial educators so as to further tailor their strategies for promoting gender equality in financial decision-making. Full article

This study examines the capability of ChatGPT to provide financial advice based on personal finance cases. We first write our own cases and feed them to ChatGPT to get its advice (recommendations) on them. Next, we assess the quality and the validity of ChatGPT’s recommendations on these cases. We find that ChatGPT serves as a suitable starting point, but its recommendations tend to be generic, and they often overlook alternative solutions and viewpoints and priority of recommendations. Overall, our analysis demonstrates the strengths and weaknesses of using ChatGPT in personal finance matters. Further, it serves as a helpful guide to financial advisors, households, and instructors of personal finance who are already using or considering using ChatGPT and want to develop a suitable understanding of the benefits and limitations of this new technology in addressing their professional and personal needs. Full article

Financial inclusion (FI) for vulnerable populations, such as women, is critical for achieving gender equality, women’s empowerment, and thereby, inclusive growth. Sustainable development goal 5 considers gender equality as a fundamental right and views the empowerment of women as a necessary step. Access to finance is a significant means to empower a person. In this regard, the use of digital financial services is of particular significance for women as it allows them easier access to financial products for business and household needs. For implementing policies to reduce financial exclusion of women, it is necessary to first measure the extent of FI in society. While there are several attempts to measure FI for the general population, there is limited literature on the gender-based measurement of FI. This paper fills this important research gap by developing a gender-based FI index (GFII) focusing particularly on digital services and evaluating the performance of countries across the globe (by considering 109 countries based on data availability) in terms of a gender-based FI measure developed by us. This index is developed using two separate indices, a digital financial service usage index (DFI) and a conventional financial service usage index (CFI). We calculate it for different countries for 2011, 2014, 2017, and 2021 using the Global Findex databaseIt helps us to investigate the performance of different countries over the years in ensuring the financial inclusion of women and how digital services are penetrating over the years. One contribution of the paper is to relate the Gender Development Index (GDI) and Gender Inequality Index (GII) of countries, two well-known measures of inclusive and sustainable development, with GFII and DFI for female (DFIF). This exercise shows that while there is a positive correlation between these two sets of indicators, there are a number of countries that are high (or low) in gender development (or inequality) that need to improve their digital FI. Interestingly, using the Global Findex database and the Feasible Generalized Least Squares (FGLS) and instrumental variable panel data model, we show that health, education, labour force participation rate, and political empowerment of women significantly impact the digital financial inclusion of women. The paper brings out relevant policy suggestions for improving women’s digital financial access and thereby enhancing gender empowerment for faster and more inclusive growth. Full article

Food insecurity among the student population is a prominent issue in South African university institutions. However, personal experiences and the myriad of underlying factors contributing to the issue remain poorly documented. Among other factors, these universities are characterized by the admission of a majority of their student population from poor backgrounds with limited financial capabilities, and this affects their food security status. The purpose of this study was to view the patterns of food insecurity among students, with a focus on alcohol consumption as one of the various factors influencing student food security status. Data were collected from 156 student respondents from the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban University of Technology, Mangosuthu University of Technology, and the University of Zululand. The Household Food Insecurity Access Scale revealed that from the total sample, only 21.79% reported themselves as food secure, whilst the remainder reported varying levels of food insecurity with 17.31% of students being food insecure, 16.03% mildly food insecure, and 44.87% severely food insecure. On the other hand, a prevalence of 73.08% (n = 114) of alcohol consumption was found among the sampled students. Ordered probit models results suggested that students’ alcohol consumption prevalence was determined by gender, level of study, exercise/playing sport, marital status, and distance to campus, which all had statistically significant effects on students’ alcohol consumption. Most crucially, gender, institution and campus positively affected students’ food security status, while the income variable made a negative significant contribution towards student food security status. Therefore, a link between students’ finances and food insecurity was evident. However, further research is required to delve into the link between the level and impact of students’ alcohol consumption and its implications on their financial status, and thus food security status. This is crucial information which will help policymakers understand these underlying factors and experiences and thus find solutions for issues related with food insecurity. Full article

This study examines how engagement in financial management activities influences well-being using nationally representative data (N = approximately 30,000) from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ American Time Use Survey and its associated Well-Being Modules. The current study estimates ordered probit models for several measures of experiential well-being, which consider how meaningful an activity is for a household and how happy, sad, tired, in pain, and stressed respondents felt during the activity. Controlling for a standard set of demographic and socioeconomic factors, the econometric results indicate that households report lower utility gains (lower happiness, greater sadness, and higher stress) when engaging in financial management activities relative to other activities. Furthermore, the results suggest increases in household time allocated toward performing financial management activities is associated with a lower (higher) likelihood of being very happy (very stressed) compared to other activities. The findings strongly indicate that households perceive financial management activities as vexing, reinforcing the need for financial stewardship support to promote household well-being. Full article

Based on the 2019 China Household Finance Survey (CHFS) data, this paper used factor analysis to measure the level of financial literacy of surveyed householders and used the Probit model and the negative binomial model to test the impact of financial literacy (FL) on household health investment (HHI). The results show that: (1) FL is an essential influencing factor in increasing participation in HHI, and householders with a higher level of FL are also more willing to pay for diversified investments. (2) We split the FL level from the two dimensions of knowledge and ability. We found that the primary FL (including financial knowledge, computing ability, and correct recognition of investment product risk) plays a more critical role in the investment decision process. (3) When information sources, health knowledge, and family income are used as mediating variables, FL can influence the decisions of HHI in three ways: expanding information sources, enriching health knowledge, and alleviating income constraints. (4) By analyzing the heterogeneity of household heads in different regions and with different personal characteristics, we found that the medical level of the household location and the life and work experience of the householders played a moderating role. Full article

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic was accompanied by multiple disruptions in the everyday lives of families. Previous research has underlined the negative impact of the pandemic on stress among parents and identified factors related to heightened levels of stress. Yet, several potential stressors have not been taken into account. Moreover, little is known about how general and pandemic-related stressors impacted help-seeking intentions for personal or family problems. Methods: We recruited N = 602 parents and their children (n = 101) for a cross-sectional online survey on parent, child and family well-being, stress and help need after the first wave of COVID-19 infections in Germany. Data were analysed using multinomial regression analyses to predict family help need, taking into account pre-pandemic help-seeking. Results: Parents showed high levels of stress, which were associated with pre-pandemic mental health, family functioning, pandemic related worries about finances, household workload and health worries. While 76.2% of families reported no during-pandemic help need, 11.3% reported a help need before and during the pandemic and 12.5% of families without prior help needs reported a new help need during the pandemic. Conclusions: The results of the present study underline the need for help service providers to adapt their offers. Full article

Telemedicine gives a safe and effective way of providing healthcare. During the COVID-19 pandemic, it was possible to offer teleconsultations in primary care (Primary Care Teleconsultation-PCT). The study aimed to present an analysis of the PCTs served in the years 2020–2021 in the field of primary care in Poland to determine how the COVID-19 pandemic contributed to the development of telemedicine in primary care in Poland. The database, containing a list of medical services provided remotely obtained from the National Health Fund, was analyzed. Economic and tax indicators obtained from the Ministry of Finance were also analyzed. Personal Income Tax (PIT) value was used as an indicator of household wealth, and the Corporate Income Tax (CIT) was used as an indicator of economic activity in individual counties for 2019. Along with the COVID-19 pandemic, patients as healthcare beneficiaries can take advantage of previously unserved telemedicine services as part of primary care. The data analysis showed that, along with the introduced recommendations and restrictions in connection with the pandemic, the number of teleconsultations in 2021 increased compared to 2020. In response to the pandemic, an educational campaign targeted older patients. These indicate the most significant percentage of PCTs among patients aged 70 and older. The study shows that the awareness barrier in implementing services for the elderly population decreased significantly. There was a clear correlation between the increase in PCTs and patient age. Full article

The redistribution of resources in global stock markets is prevalent: the capital is transferred from one investor to another. Sometimes, earning a substantial return in the stock market seems complicated to implement for an individual investor. Investing contributes to the welfare of society and the wealth of citizens. This is why people should look for efficient ways to invest. Investment should become a natural part of personal finance management in the majority of households. For this reason, an investment model is developed where stocks are selected based only on market intelligence using historical data. The model helps find one or several stocks that generate the highest return on a separate step. Applying this model, experiments were performed with daily data from German, US, and UK stock markets. The possibility of obtaining higher than average returns in these markets has been noticed. In the German market, during the 97-day period, the authors obtained a 1.46 return, which implies a 2.31 annual return: in the USA market, a 2.37 return (7.93 annual return), and in the UK market, a 1.90 return (4.09 annual return). Thus, the proposed investment decision-making system could be an efficient tool for forming a sustainable individual or household portfolio. It can generate higher investment returns for an investor and, moreover, make the market more efficient by applying market intelligence and related historical data. Full article

Out-of-pocket (OOP) payments are perceived as the most regressive means of health financing. Using the panel-data approach and region-aggregated data from Statistics Poland, this research investigated associations between socio-economic factors and OOP health spending in 16 Polish regions for the period 1999–2019. The dependent variable was real (inflation-adjusted) monthly OOP health expenditure per person in Polish households. Potential independent variables included economic, labour, demographic, educational, health, environmental, and lifestyle measures based on previous research. A set of panel-data estimators was used in regression models. The factors that were positively associated with OOP health spending were disposable income, the proportions of children (aged 0–9) and elderly (70+ years) in the population, healthcare supply (proxied by physicians’ density), air pollution, and tobacco and alcohol expenditure. On the other hand, the increased unemployment rate, life expectancy at age 65, mortality rate, and higher sports participation were all related to lower OOP health spending. The results may guide national strategies to improve health-care allocations and offer additional financial protection for vulnerable groups, such as households with children and elderly members. Full article

Modern pension schemes are based on the delegation of responsibility for pension provision from state institutions to individuals, which implies voluntary retirement saving. Workers for profit (independent workers in household market enterprises) hold much greater personal responsibility for financing their pensions than workers for pay. The main aim of this study was to provide an empirical identification of economic and social factors that would determine the propensity toward long-term saving for pensions by independent, for-profit workers in Poland. Additionally, the study recognizes the level of saving accumulated by them as well as preferred forms in which this saving is made.In order to select determinants of pension saving, a logistic regression model was used. The data come from the direct survey conducted in 2020 by CAWI method (Computer-Assisted Web Interview) on a random nationwide sample of Poles. The analysis of the data also used other methods of descriptive and mathematical statistics. The conducted research showed that the respondents’ individual decisions concerning saving for retirement are affected by such factors as gender, age, family situation, amount of revenue, share of revenue from business activity in total revenue, and subjective assessment of the respondents’ financial situation. The respondents declared holding various, though not high, savings. Moreover, it turned out that independent workers for profit in Poland opt for non-conventional forms of gathering pension savings. Full article