Spending Behavior Research Articles

Inequitable Impacts of Textbook Costs at a Small, Private College: Results from a Textbook Survey at Gettysburg College

Recognizing that higher education settings vary considerably, librarians at Gettysburg College sought to better understand textbook spending behaviors and the effects of costs on our students. We adapted the Florida Virtual Campus 2016 Student Textbook and Course Materials Survey to suit the context of our small, private, liberal arts college. Most students spent $300 in Fall 2019. Financial aid awards did not cover the cost of required books and course materials for most students receiving aid. Negative effects were more pronounced for first-generation students and Pell Grant recipients, who were more likely to not purchase required books, to not register for a course due to cost, and to struggle academically. Some reported negative effects beyond their academic lives, as well. We recommend adoption of Open Educational Resources as an equity-minded practice that addresses this academic success barrier.

Pressure, Cost Accounting, and Resource Allocations: Experimental Evidence on Nonprofit Financial Decision-Making

Nonprofit organizations are under pressure to contain their overhead costs. This pressure can affect spending behavior and create an impulse to manipulate financial reporting data. Drawing on stakeholder theory, this study develops a comprehensive framework of ratio management pressure and examines the extent to which external and internal pressures affect financial decisions. We conduct a scenario experiment wherein financial managers perform accounting and spending tasks after subjection to various types of pressure: donor pressure, board pressure, or media pressure. We find that donor pressure significantly affects both accounting and spending behavior, whereas board and media pressure affect only accounting choices. Our research generates insights into the extent to which the observed practice of continuous cost containment is driven by external pressure or rather by organizations themselves. These findings are insightful for nonprofit leaders who wrestle with complex financial challenges and the expectations of multiple stakeholder groups.

"Show Me the Money": Preliminary Lessons from an Implementation of Intervention Tools at the Payment Gateway Level.

Traditional approaches that seek to study Responsible Gambling (RG) mainly focus on evaluating platform-based intervention tools applied on gambling operator sites. This paper reports on the implementation, at the payment-solution level, of an intervention tool that gambling customers used to deposit their bets. The approach pre-commits customers to set a single-point spending limit on their payment gateway account, effectively enabling them to apply their budget setting on all gambling platforms on which they choose to play. Ten users who have used the provision for at least six months and on two different gambling platforms were selected for an in-depth interview. Based on the findings from content analysis, the article argues that payment-level intervention approach can potentially (1) provide the overall gambling population with better financial literacy regarding their gambling habits, which promotes responsible spending behaviour, (2) elevate the strain on users to set up intervention tools on every individual platform, and (3) serve as a preventive measure regardless of the existence or absence of intervention tools at gambling sites. Furthermore, the results affirm a gap in existing research and a need for comprehensive guidelines and strategies for financial institutions to positively contribute towards the agenda of RG. The findings of this study highlight the need for revisiting theoretical and philosophical foundations of intervention tool studies and gambling policymaking as well as calls for reassessing how we problematised harmful gambling. The paper contributes to the research on gambling intervention tools.

The bailout of Greece and the instability of the Eurozone

The euro has been sliding against the US dollar for weeks. Concerns about the public finances of eurozone countries Portugal, Ireland, Greece, and Spain, the so-called «PIGS,» have emerged in financial markets. Greece is facing the severest crisis, with its 10-year bond yield approaching 7%. The Greek government estimates its budget deficit at 12.7% of GDP in 2009. Gross government debts amount to 113% of its GDP. If the interest rate Greece has to pay for its debts keeps rising, the country may have to default on its obligations.
 In an attempt to recoup confidence in the future of the country, the Greek government has announced a freeze on public salaries, a reduction in the number of public servants, and an increase in taxes on gas, tobacco, alcohol, and big real-estate properties. This should help to reduce the deficit to 8% in 2010. However, the markets do not trust this solution.
 While the increase in taxes will cause new problems for the Greeks, other problems remain unaddressed: The huge public sector has not been substantially reduced. Wage rates remain uncompetitive as a result of strong labor unions.
 Moreover, it is not clear if the government can stick to these small spending cuts, as there will be a general strike in February. In December 2008, Greece experienced riots against comparatively minor political reforms. As the majority of the population seems to be against spending cuts, the government may not be able to prevent the bankruptcy of the country.
 For years, the Greek government has demonstrated rather thriftless spending behavior. This was exacerbated when Greece started to pay lower interest rates on government bonds by virtue of having entered the European Economic and Monetary Union.
 Greece’s interest rates were subsidized due to an implicit guarantee from the strong members of the eurozone, who were expected to support weaker members in times of trouble. During the first years of the euro, interest rates on Greek bonds were thus reduced; they approached German bond yields. Greece spent wildly but paid interest rates like a much more conservative country. Meanwhile, the Greek economy and voting public adapted to government spending subsidized by low interest rates.

Predicting compulsive buying from pathological personality traits, stressors, and purchasing behavior

We applied both a cross-sectional design and an experience sampling method to the study of compulsive buying. A sample was drawn from Prolific Academic comprised of undergraduate students in the U.S., which was supplemented by a sample of undergraduate students who attended a public university in the northeast U.S. Results from the cross-sectional design revealed that lower detachment and higher antagonism conceived by the DSM-5's dimensional model of pathological personality traits, as well as lower pain of paying (the anticipated negative affect associated with spending one's money), predicted greater compulsive buying. Results from the experience sampling design indicated that higher antagonism was related to increased spending preoccupation, and that greater interpersonal conflict was related to both greater spending behavior and increased spending preoccupation. Finally, results revealed a moderation effect for detachment and academic load on spending behavior such that those who were high in detachment and reported a lower academic load engaged in more spending habits. Results are discussed in terms of how pathological personality traits and spending habits are impacted by interpersonal constructs that influence spending habits.

Neural Networks to Estimate Generalized Propensity Scores for Continuous Treatment Doses.

The generalized propensity score (GPS) addresses selection bias due to observed confounding variables and provides a means to demonstrate causality of continuous treatment doses with propensity score analyses. Estimating the GPS with parametric models obliges researchers to meet improbable conditions such as correct model specification, normal distribution of variables, and large sample sizes. The purpose of this Monte Carlo simulation study is to examine the performance of neural networks as compared to full factorial regression models to estimate GPS in the presence of Gaussian and skewed treatment doses and small to moderate sample sizes. A detailed conceptual introduction of neural networks is provided, as well as an illustration of selection of hyperparameters to estimate GPS. An example from public health and nutrition literature uses residential distance as a treatment variable to illustrate how neural networks can be used in a propensity score analysis to estimate a dose-response function of grocery spending behaviors. We found substantially higher correlations and lower mean squared error values after comparing true GPS with the scores estimated by neural networks. The implication is that more selection bias was removed using GPS estimated with neural networks than using GPS estimated with classical regression. This study proposes a new methodological procedure, neural networks, to estimate GPS. Neural networks are not sensitive to the assumptions of linear regression and other parametric models and have been shown to be a contender against parametric approaches to estimate propensity scores for continuous treatments.

A replication study of the credit card effect on spending behavior and an extension to mobile payments

Prior research has shown that credit cards increase spending behavior as measured by the willingness to pay (WTP) or basket value. This research aims to replicate the credit card effect and to extend this effect to mobile payments. In four empirical studies, of which three online studies and one lab study (total n = 692), we manipulated payment methods (i.e., cash, credit cards, and mobile payments) and measured spending behavior (i.e., WTP and basket value). Across four studies, we did not replicate the credit card effect on either measure of spending behavior, suggesting the effect in the literature may be inflated or may have been fading away. A meta-analysis of the relevant literature revealed the expected credit card effect but also showed that the credit card effect has become weaker through the years and that this effect is contingent on the location of data collection. We also did not find evidence that the credit card effect extends to mobile payments on either measure of spending behavior in the three online studies. However, we found a significant difference between mobile payments and cash on the basket value measure (but not for the WTP measure) in the lab study. This paper also explored whether the pain of payment or payment convenience may be a mechanism underlying the relationship between payment methods and spending behavior. Although the pain of payment tended to be lower and the payment convenience tended to be higher for mobile payments, these effects did not translate into more spending behaviors.

A Study on Household Finance and Their Spending Behaviour

This article investigates the nature of Household finance and their spending behavior. In household finance, the main thing to focus on is the person looking after household expenditure. Financial illiteracy is widespread among the general population and particularly acute among specific demographic groups, such as women. This paper mainly focuses household finance decision and it is varying from end to end consumers. To know the awareness about different investment from saving. This survey based on changing behavior of population towards the saving and investment. The survey has been conducted from earning group of the family members. The demographic population has been targeted to know the importance of household finance and benefits.

Impact of foreign remittances on the household spending behaviour in Bangladesh

ABSTRACT This paper analyses the impact of international remittances on household spending behaviour in the Bangladesh context. The total household spending has been classified into seven categories, namely education, health, food, consumed and durable goods, housing and land, investment and ‘other consumption’. For addressing the self-selection bias, we applied the propensity score matching technique. Moreover, to analyse the impact of remittances on the marginal spending behaviour we applied the Working-Leser (WL) model. Findings from the study reveal that remittances have positive and significant impact on the amount spent on almost all the spending categories except education, and investment. In terms of budgetary shares of different spending categories, households receiving remittances spend a lower fraction of their total spending on food and investment. Although the impact of remittances is positive and significant for the budget shares of health, housing and land, it is found to be insignificant for education and consumed and durables goods.

Burying the Dead: Predicting the Purchase Intentions for Funeral Products Using the Theory of Reasoned Action

The study departs from the norm by investigating how attitudes and subjective norms conceptualized through the aggregated and disaggregated approaches predict intentions to purchase funeral products, as well as how the effects differ between groups based on past purchase behaviour. A structured questionnaire was self-administered to a purposeful sample of 500 Christians in Gaborone, Botswana, of which 457 (i.e., 91%) were useful responses. The findings of the aggregated approach show that both attitudes and subjective norms significantly and positively affect purchase intentions of funeral products. The effects are more evident for those who have purchased funeral products before, while the purchase intentions of those who have not purchased funeral products are influenced by subjective norms only. However, the findings based on the disaggregated approach reflect that motivation to comply is the most dominant, significant and positive predictor of intentions to purchase funeral products. Further results indicate that the intentions of those who have purchased funeral products before were significantly and positively influenced by evaluations, normative beliefs and motivation to comply, while the intentions of non-purchasers were only influenced significantly and positively by their motivation to comply. Thus, motivation to comply serves as a significant and positive predictor of intentions regardless of past purchase behaviour. The results imply that various components of attitudes and subjective norms affect intentions differently, and variations do exist in the effects according to the groups’ past purchase behaviour. This study adopts a consumer behaviour perspective in offering insight into Christian burial rituals. By applying the Theory of Reasoned Action, the link between intentions and its predictors is investigated, which extends the literature about the purchase of funeral products beyond the study of spending behaviour. Its concentration on Christians in Botswana also provides a good starting point for highlighting the role of religiosity on the purchase of funeral products, while embracing an understudied society.

Covid-19 – A Call for Socio-Economic Policy Implementation and People’s Socio-Economic Behavior Change in Uganda

The outbreak of COVID-19 has called for proper policy implementation on the side of the government of Uganda. Uganda has a policy on food and nutrition that is responsible for maintaining food reserves (or funds to be used for staple food purchase) at household, sub-county, district, regional and national levels, to boost disaster preparedness. But this and many other policies that are intended to support socio-economic lives have never been fully implemented. The government has also been called upon to strengthen financial institutions to encourage people to save. Ugandans too, are encouraged to embrace the culture of saving. Therefore, COVID-19 lockdown has awakened Ugandans to change their spending behavior given the uncertain future. Besides, the pandemic has also checked on Uganda's socio-cultural behavior, calling for a change in terms of greeting gestures and personal space, religious beliefs, land ownership, hygiene, and educational accessibility.

College Costs and Credit Cards: How Student Credit Card Use Influences College Degree Attainment

Since the turn of the twenty-first century, going to college has become increasingly financially difficult in the United States. Tuition prices continued to rise, state funding for higher education declined, and the mean family income declined or stagnated for all but the top 20 percent of families (Goldrick-Rab 2016). In a period where college has risen to be the preeminent way Americans can make a better life for themselves, it is becoming more difficult for Americans to pay for college. Financial aid does not cover as much of the price of college as it once did (Goldrick-Rab 2016), and college students are relying on financing methods like student loans more than ever before. Student loans, however, are not the only credit-based financial strategy college students use to pay for college (Manning 2000, 2005). With the explosion of consumer credit access from the 1980s to the 2000s, college students are using credit cards, many times to bridge gaps in their budgets as they try to pay for college. This paper utilizes data from the Education Longitudinal Study (2002–12) to examine the link between college student credit card use and bachelor's degree attainment and demonstrates that college students who carry a balance on their credit card from month to month have a lower likelihood of completing a bachelor’s degree, net of other important factors. Research in the fields of financial counseling and planning, consumer studies, public policy, sociology, and health has explored college student credit card spending behaviors, associated health and educational outcomes, and the influence of family backgrounds on credit card use. This paper extends this existing body of research by considering how college student credit card use influences educational outcomes.

Negative mood regulation expectancies moderate the effect of childhood maltreatment on compulsive buying.

Two studies investigated childhood maltreatment, alexithymia-the inability to identify one's mood-and negative mood regulation expectancies (NMRE)-confidence that one can alleviate one's negative moods-as predictors of compulsive buying (CB). Participants were recruited from internet CB forums and undergraduate psychology classes. Online, they completed questionnaires and a behavioral task that assessed impulsive spending. In Study 1 (N = 646), analyses indicated that NMRE, alexithymia, and childhood maltreatment were significant independent predictors of CB. For Study 2, a subset of participants from the Study 1 pool (N = 295) who met the criterion for clinical levels of CB were selected, based on their self-report. Analyses revealed that NMRE buffered the effect of maltreatment: among participants with high NMRE-higher levels of maltreatment were associated with minimal increases in CB and impulsive spending behavior. Being confident that one can control one's unpleasant moods was a protective factor from the maladaptive consequences of childhood maltreatment. Increasing NMRE early in psychotherapy for CB may result in clients' using more adaptive coping strategies.

Impact of Economic and Financial Literacy on the Spending Behaviour of Selected Public Servants in Lagos State Nigeria

:Low level of financial literacy among the young workforce has remained a lingering problem,especially in developing countries. This has been pointed out as one of the causes of poor personal financialmanagement practice. This problem has hampered the efforts of various governments and institutions inthis region geared towards financial inclusion and the overall economic wellbeing of the citizens. Moststudies in this area focused on the financial literacy level of people rather than the effect on their behaviour.This study is an attempt examine the effect of financial literacy level on spending behaviour of 30 youngadults from public sector organizations. The study employed the standard questions for assessing theknowledge level of respondents. The questions test their understanding of simple and compoundinterest,inflation and portfolio diversification. For the spending behaviour, thePlanned Behaviour Theory(PBT) proposed by Icek Ajzen (1985) as a theoretical framework for measuring spending behaviour usingthe respondents preparation of budget and personal pre-retirement savings account as proxies. Data wascollected using a structured questionnaire . Descriptive statistics and multiple regression was used toanalyze thedata. The result showed that there is a positive correlation between the level of financial literacyand the spending behaviour of therespondents. The less the knowledge of financial management the peoplehave, the higher the risk of poor spendingbehaviour. The conclusion was drawn to say that more work isneeded to equip the youth especially on the art of financial management.

Analyzing state government spending: balanced budget rules or forward-looking decisions?

We analyze US state government spending behavior with a general intertemporal model allowing for asymmetry in balanced budget rules in a panel data setting. We find no strong evidence for forward-looking behavior in state spending; balanced budget rules are a significant constraint. States with budget rules imposing lighter restrictions are more likely to exhibit habit formation, while those with stricter rules demonstrate asymmetric responses to revenue changes. Evidence for a precautionary savings motive is limited. Balanced budget requirements trigger substantial pro-cyclical spending, possibly amplifying state economic volatility for states with tight fiscal rules, especially after revenue increases.

Determinants of tourist expenditure: the role of tourists' experiences in the city of Porto

Little attention has been paid to the specifics of urban and cultural tourism and the experiences associated with it, namely in the study of the factors that determine tourists' spending behaviour. We assess how tourists' spending during a visit to the city of Porto is related to experiences related to gastronomy and wine, to their socio-demographic attributes and the characteristics of the trip. Data is based on interviews with domestic and foreign tourists. Ordinary least squares (OLS) estimate shows that indicators such as age, education or activity in the labour market have a positive impact on the spending of tourists, with the length of stay being associated with lower spending. The experiences offered at a destination play an important and positive role in tourists' spending. This implies that it is important to offer specific offers and experiences to increase the attractiveness of the destination. Also, the relationships differ between men and women.

The Success of Cannabis Legalization: Evidence from Banking Transactions

Using data on banking transactions, we analyze how people changed their spending behaviour when recreational cannabis became legal in Canada. In the data set, we identify people with purchases in a cannabis store after the legalization. We apply a difference-in-difference approach to compare their spending before and after legalization. People with cannabis purchases after legalization reduced significantly and persistently their cash spending and electronic transfers, indicating a shift from the black to the legal cannabis market. We also find that, across all age and gender groups, cannabis consumers spend significantly more than other people on fast food and alcohol.

Household Spending Patterns and Hardships during COVID-19: A Comparative Study of the U.S. and Israel

The combined supply and demand shocks of the COVID-19 pandemic have created the largest shift in consumer behavior in recent history, while exposing millions of households to material hardships like food insecurity and housing instability. In this study, we draw on national surveys conducted early in the pandemic to investigate the COVID-19’s effects on self-reported consumer spending behaviors and experiences of hardship for households in Israel and the U.S.; two developmentally similar countries that have had divergent experiences with and responses to the pandemic. We also examine the extent to which racial/ethnic/religious minority status and pre-pandemic employment characteristics predict these outcomes. Using descriptive and logistic regression approaches, we find that housing expenditures were fairly stable in the U.S. and Israel, while food and credit card payment expenditures were relatively volatile. We also find that food insecurity was much higher in the U.S. than Israel, while indicators of housing volatility are similar between the two countries. Generally speaking, racial/ethnic/religious minorities in both countries were more likely to experience spending volatility, while Black and Hispanic (in the U.S.) and Arab (in Israel) households were more likely to experience hardships. Employment and financial characteristics also appear much more predictive of hardship in the U.S. than in Israel.

Political Budget Cycle: An Analysis of Brazilian Municipalities

The study investigates the behavior of committed expenses, investment expenditures and loan during an election period in Brazilian municipalities with a population equal to or greater than 50 thousand inhabitants, as well as whether these same municipalities meet the legal requirements regarding the source and limit of budget resources in an election year, as established by Law No. 11,300/06, in the period 2000-2016. The research sample represents 66% of the Brazilian population. The method applied for data analysis was tobit regression on panel data, grouped by municipalities, corresponding to 353 municipalities, 5 regions and 6001 observations. The findings indicate that there are no changes in the expenses committed before, during and after the electoral period, regardless of party equality and election in two rounds. With regard to spending on investments and loan during an election period, the study suggests an average increase of 9% and 68% respectively, with greater intensity when there is party equality between municipal and state governments, especially in the process of reelection. As for compliance with legal requirements on the use of budget resources in an election year, the study indicates that local governments do not comply with current normative instructions. Contributions: Considering that there is no consensus in the specialized literature on the behavior of public spending, this study contributes to the literature and future research because it innovates through a robust and effective statistical method, the disclosure of spending behavior in local governments in election period.

Consumption habits and economic impact of Liebherr 2019 ITTF World Table Tennis Championships

Organising international sports events became one of the most important elements of the prioritized sports sector in Hungary. The main goal of this study was to examine the economic impact of Liebherr 2019 ITTF World Table Tennis Championships (WTTC) for the Hungarian GDP. The impact is based on consumption habits of stakeholders and total budget of organisers so it was necessary to analyse the characteristics of passive sports tourists and all other stakeholders and their spending too. Consumption of stakeholders were surveyed with questionnaire (n=1097) and the budget of the organisers were presented by the Hungarian Table Tennis Association. We have used the secondary data of Hungarian Statistical Office and Eurostat for input-output modelling. Expenditures and spending behaviour of stakeholders were calculated by inferential statistics, differences were tested by independent-samples T tests, ANOVA and Chi-square tests. Input-output modelling method was used for estimating the direct and indirect macroeconomic impacts. Daily spending of domestic (47.9 EUR/day) and foreign (102.8 EUR/day) passive sports tourists coming to the WTTC were calculated. Foreign passive sports tourists spent an average 3.85 days in the country. Examining the macroeconomic effects it can be stated that every EUR of government support increased the country’s GDP by 1.21 EUR and generated a tax of 1.01 EUR in 2019. Expenditures of spectators and participants contributed 24% of the generated GDP. Passive sports tourists of WTTC spent more money than the general domestic and foreign tourists (20.6 EUR/day and 51.8 EUR/day respectively) or even the domestic or foreign sports tourists (24.7 EUR/day and 54.7 EUR/day respectively). They spent more time than general foreign tourists or foreign sports tourists as well (2.26 days and 2.29 days respectively) in Hungary. The Hungarian government provided almost 4 million euros support to the organisers and this amount is exceeded by the total contribution of WTTC to the Hungarian GDP (4.7 million EUR).