Household financial planning and savings behavior

Greater personal responsibility toward financial decision-making is being advocated on a global basis. Individuals and households are encouraged to take a more active approach to personal finance. In this paper, we examine behavioral factors, which lead households toward savings and financial planni...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of international money and finance 2016-12, Vol.69, p.95-107
Main Authors: Brounen, Dirk, Koedijk, Kees G., Pownall, Rachel A.J.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Baby boomers
Behavior
Consumer behavior
Consumer behaviour
Decision making
Financial literacy
Financial planning
Household finance
Households
Netherlands
Personal finance
Personality
Studies
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Summary:Greater personal responsibility toward financial decision-making is being advocated on a global basis. Individuals and households are encouraged to take a more active approach to personal finance. In this paper, we examine behavioral factors, which lead households toward savings and financial planning across a panel of 1253 Dutch households. In line with the available literature, we find that an individual's propensity to save decreases with age and is higher among the financial literate. Moreover, we find that saving behavior varies across generations, and is significantly dominant among baby boomers. This generation effect, however, weakens once we account for more individual specifics. Our results offer evidence for parental influence, and for the effects of the psychological and behavioral metrics of numeracy, self-efficacy, locus of control and future orientation. A good understanding of these personality variables helps to explain why some take financial responsibility while others do not.
ISSN:0261-5606
1873-0639
DOI:10.1016/j.jimonfin.2016.06.011