Antecedentes e consequências da gestão das finanças domésticas: uma investigação com consumidoras da classe C

• Ano de defesa: 2013
• Autor(a) principal: Miotto, Ana Paula
• Orientador(a): Parente, Juracy Gomes
• Tipo de documento: Tese
• Tipo de acesso: Acesso aberto
• Idioma: por
• Palavras-chave em Português: Tomada de decisão financeira; Orçamento mental; Inadimplência; Poupança
• Palavras-chave em Inglês: Financial decision making; Mental budget; Default; Savings
• Link de acesso: https://hdl.handle.net/10438/10631

All consumer expenditures compete for the same set of limited resources: individual or household income. Decisions about what to buy, how to pay and how much to save are part of families daily activities, regardless of their income. However, in a context of increased resource constraints many of these decisions are crucial. Combining desires and obligations on a limited budget is no easy task. The household finance management is considered an important task and can have positive consequences for consumers, such as the possibility to save resources for the future, or negative, such as default. This thesis argues that consumers manage their budgets differently. Also, they have personal characteristics that impact this management. Through two complementary studies - the first exploratory and qualitative and the second quantitative the thesis aims to understand the way C class households perform the management of their finances, testing relations between personal characteristics and forms of dealing with finance. And investigate how the occurrence of default or savings is influenced by personal characteristics and the way consumers conduct such management. Two distinct components in the household finance management were identified: the mental budget and income and expenses management . Results of qualitative research point to a larger consumer’s effort in controlling post-consumer spending, with little concern for budget planning. Credit card financing is another feature investigated. The installment payment option is often seen as the only form of acquisition. While the credit card use facilitates the control (all expenses in one account), the possibility of minimum payment, and the difficulty to understand the interest rates, are aspects that bring complexity to the process and could lead consumers to uncontrolled budget and default. Results of the quantitative study, however, indicate a positive relationship between the preference for credit and financial management. 11 Self-control has a positive relation with the management of expenses, as well as the propensity to plan. The management of expenditure, in turn, has a negative relation with the occurrence of default. It was found that revenues and expenses management play a role as a mediator between personal characteristics and default and between the propensity to plan and savings. Encouraging better financial management can have a positive impact on reducing default as increasing savings. Critical events, mainly unemployment and sickness in the family, have a direct influence on the occurrence of default. Acting on these events is difficult because, in most cases, they are unexpected situations. However, encouraging savings for such emergencies should minimize the negative impact of a critical event. Contributions to the theory, practice and public policy are offered and discussed.