Determinants of financial managers' perception of rural household economic well-being: An analysis of a composite measure
Walson, Christopher Okey
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Permalink
https://hdl.handle.net/2142/20835
Description
Title
Determinants of financial managers' perception of rural household economic well-being: An analysis of a composite measure
Author(s)
Walson, Christopher Okey
Issue Date
1991
Doctoral Committee Chair(s)
Fitzsimmons, Vicki R.
Department of Study
Human and Community Development
Discipline
Human and Community Development
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Degree Level
Dissertation
Keyword(s)
Home Economics
Economics, General
Language
eng
Abstract
The objectives of this study were (a) to develop a composite measure of perceived economic well-being and (b) to determine the effects of socioeconomic and social-psychological variables on household financial manager's index of perceived economic well-being.
"Data for this study were part of the NC-182 regional project ""Family Resource Utilization as a Factor in Determining Economic Well-Being of Rural Families."" The survey was developed by researchers from eight states: Arizona, California, Kansas, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, and Minnesota. A random sample of households was obtained from two counties in each of the eight states. Only those households in which the respondent was married were included in this study, resulting in 1772 households. The respondent was the financial manager of the household."
Utility theory provided the theoretical base on which hypotheses were developed. Socioeconomic and social-psychological variables associated with providing utility to the financial manager and/or empirically tested in a previous study were included in the model for this study.
For analysis purposes, the eight states were assigned randomly and equally to A-Half, analysis, and V-Half, validation, subsamples. Multiple regression analysis was used to determine the variables that influenced perceived economic well-being. Three stages of regressions were run: preliminary, combined, and final. The first two stages were run with the stepwise procedure, and the final stage was the regular regression.
A composite measure of the dependent variable, perceived economic well-being, was created using factor analysis. Seven variables were combined to create the index: (a) satisfaction with amount of money family is able to save, (b) satisfaction with amount of current debt, (c) satisfaction with current total household income, (d) satisfaction with level of consumption, (e) satisfaction with resources available to meet a financial emergency, (f) satisfaction with amount of household net worth, and (g) perceived income adequacy.
Eight variables were significant (p $\leq$.001) and explained.74 and.75 of variance in perceived economic well-being in the A-Half and V-Half subsamples, respectively. Only one, total household income, was a socioeconomic variable. The social-psychological variables were: (a) present financial condition compared to 5 years ago, (b) how often you save on regular basis for goal(s), (c) how often you make only minimum payments on charge accounts, (d) satisfaction with resources, (e) how often you worry about where money will come from to pay bills, (f) level of living, and (g) frequency of financial problems.
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