Financial well-being, COVID-19, and the financial better-than-average-effect

Abstract

At the onset of the COVID-19 outbreak we conducted two surveys in the United Kingdom and Sweden (N=2021) regarding how people assess the near future economic situation within their household, nation, and the world. Together with psychological factors related to information processing we link these prospects to financial well-being. We find that, although generally very pessimistic, a substantial proportion of individuals believes that their households’ economy will be doing substantially better than the national and global economy, suggesting a “financial better-than-average” effect. Furthermore, we find that the pessimism regarding future household economic situation and being financially ignorant are associated with decreased financial well-being, while the (inter)national economic situation is not. This study shows how contextual factors and personal aspects shape financial well-being during turbulent and stressful times.

Social Capital Theory, Social Exchange Theory, Social Cognitive Theory, Financial Literacy, and the Role of Knowledge Sharing as a Moderator in Enhancing Financial Well-Being: From Bibliometric Analysis to a Conceptual Framework Model

“…Previous research shows an optimistic connection between financial efficacy and FWB (Shim et al, 2009). Higher levels of self-efficacy associate with FWB and set demanding objectives along with making the financial assistance easy (Bandura, 1997;Lim et al, 2014). Latest studies have depicted the significance of financial self-efficacy for forecasting more savings, "lower debt and adjustment to retirement."…”

“…As per the SCT, in a social-learning context, self-efficacy connects persons and the surroundings, and the communication between them (Bandura, 1997). It explains a person's capability to achieve a task victoriously and anticipation of future results.…”

“…Financial well-being (FWB) has recently become a hot topic (Joo and Grable, 2004;Shim et al, 2009;Brüggen et al, 2017;Netemeyer et al, 2018;Collins and Urban, 2020). The first quarter of 2020 was severally impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic that influenced the domestic, financial, and commercial lives of the people (Barrafrem et al, 2020;Sharma et al, 2020;Botha et al, 2021). Policymakers placed financial resilience and FWB on the top of the schedule.…”

Contribution of Perceived Social Support (Peer, Family, and Teacher) to Academic Resilience during COVID-19

“…Social support measurement is done in perceived social support by asking how a person perceives or believes others will help. This can then help a person think about the availability of help or support to help him deal with various stressful events in life (Barrafrem et al, 2020). Perceived social support is a cognitive appraisal of individuals regarding social support received.…”

Análisis de la percepción de las políticas y principios para evitar un sobreendeudamiento en las instituciones financieras del cantón Ibarra, Ecuador.

“…Las instituciones financieras deberían practicar un modelo de banca socialmente responsable, donde los inversionistas y los clientes recurran a una alternativa confiable, que no sea impulsada por la maximización de las ganancias, donde la transparencia sea una de las características, que acompañe a los proyectos que aporten un valor agregado desde la perspectiva social, cultural y ambiental (Barbu & Boitan, 2019); por tal razón, la banca socialmente responsable debería considerar que sus prácticas no afecten el bienestar financiero de sus clientes; sin embargo, hay que considerar que el bienestar financiero depende de factores relacionados con el entorno social y económico, el conocimiento financiero objetivo y subjetivo, los rasgos de autocontrol y evasión de información e ignorancia financiera (Barrafrem et al, 2020), siendo este último un factor determinante en la afectación del bienestar financiero de los usuarios y sus niveles crediticios, que se ven incrementados por ignorancia financiera, o falta de educación financiera.…”