Search results

In recent decades, research on consumer debt and well-being is emerging. However, research on the potential effect of debt portfolios on family financial well-being is limited. The purpose of this study is to fill this research gap by examining the potential effect of debt portfolios on family financial well-being, measured by three indicators of progressive financial burdens. These indicators include debt pressure (debt payment to income ratio >40%), debt delinquency (60+ days late for debt payments) and insolvency (total liability > total asset). Debt portfolios refer to various combinations of mortgage, credit card, vehicle, education and other loans.

With data from the 2019 Survey of Consumer Finances in the USA, multivariate logistic regressions are used to identify specific debt types, consumer backgrounds and financial capability factors that are significantly associated with debt burden indicators. The findings are used to create a table demonstrating warning debt portfolios that may lead to undesirable financial outcomes.

Holdings of different types of debts are associated with different financial burdens. Specifically, holdings of three types of debts (mortgage, vehicle and other debts) tend to increase debt pressure; holdings of two types of debts (education and other debts) tend to increase debt delinquency; and holdings of four types of debts (mortgage, credit card, education and other debts) tend to increase insolvency. These results are used to construct warning debt portfolios that show greater chances of undesirable financial outcomes. Among them, the top warning portfolio for debt pressure is the combined holding of mortgage-vehicle-other debts; for debt delinquency is the holding of education-other debts; and for insolvency is the holding of mortgage-credit card-education-other debts.

This study is limited by using only cross-sectional survey data to examine associations between debt portfolios and financial burdens. To examine the causality of debt portfolios on financial burdens, appropriate panel data are necessary, which is a direction for future research. In addition, this study used data from only one developed country. In future research, data from more countries, including both developed and developing countries, should be analyzed to verify if similar relationships exist among families in other countries.

Results of this study have implications for practitioners in banking and other financial institutions. The study presents a comprehensive list of debt portfolios in the order from high risk to low risk in terms of financial burdens. Banking and other financial service professionals can use the information to help their clients make informed borrowing decisions, predict their debt burdens and offer early preventions based on their clients' debt portfolios. Marketing strategists can use the information for effective segmentation and promotion purposes.

This study utilizes a new concept, debt portfolios and examines its associations with family financial burdens. Financial burdens include three indicators that are seldom used together in previous research. These indicators conceptually indicate various severity levels of debt burdens. This study also presents a conceptual discussion on the association between debt portfolios and financial burdens and provides a better understanding of consumer debt behavior and its consequences. The warning debt portfolios constructed based on the findings have direct managerial implications for banking and other financial service professionals.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between consumers' satisfaction with their health insurance and quality of life (QoL), the mediating role of perceived financial burden in this relationship, as well as the moderating effect of external locus of control (LoC) on the relationship between perceived financial burden and QoL among cancer patients.

A cross-sectional design was employed in order to collect quantitative data by means of a self-administrated questionnaire. Participants consisted of 387 conveniently selected consumers diagnosed with cancer in Iran. Furthermore, the questionnaire was translated into Persian using a forward–backward method. The model was tested using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM).

The results indicate that the more satisfied patients are with their health insurance, the higher QoL they experience, and this relationship is explained through reducing perceived financial burden in terms of direct and indirect costs of the disease. Although external LoC belief is negatively related to QoL, it buffers the negative association between financial burden and QoL.

Reducing the disparity between consumers' expectation and perception of the comprehensiveness of health insurance policies may relieve consumers' anxiety stemming from financial worries.

This paper fills a gap in the literature where consumers' perception about quality of insurance and its relationship with their QoL has received little attention so far.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze whether and to what extent households living in southern Europe, i.e. Greece, Portugal, Spain and Italy, experience similar conditions of financial vulnerability, considering that in comparative research these countries are often grouped together because of the substantial instability of their economies and the similarity of social and welfare model.

The authors use data from Household Finance and Consumption Survey, a quite novel data set that covers the whole balance sheet of a sample of households. The authors compute four indicators of debt burden and in order to study households’ risk of default the authors apply two-part model, which is a valuable alternative to the application of conventional regression models with zero-inflated data.

Analysis reveals that the burden of debts and the risk of default are very different among the four countries, in particular Spain and Portugal have the highest proportion of financially vulnerable households.

The study is one a few that have directly compared objectives indicators of households’ financial vulnerability in all Southern European countries. Moreover, the authors employ a two-part model, a valuable alternative to the application of conventional logit or linear regression models. In the first part of the model the authors estimate the probability that households suffer financial vulnerability; in the second part, the authors estimate households’ level of vulnerability only for vulnerable families.

The purpose of this paper is to find out the likely compliance cost of anti‐money laundering and counter terrorism financing (AMLCTF) for financial institutions in Australia to help understand the regulatory burden of the legislation.

The paper adopts a case study approach. Using the method of analogy, the cost of compliance is estimated.

It is found that the legislation brings substantial financial regulatory burden on the financial institutions in Australia. It is also found that the compliance cost is quite substantial and stands at about A$1.02 billion for the banking industry as a whole at 2007 prices. The per capita burden has been estimated at A$50 approximately. The author's estimate compares well with other publicly available estimates.

Limitations of case study research method apply. Through this case study, prior work on regulatory cost burden on organisations is confirmed – in the context of financial institutions.

Policy makers and reporting entities the world over would particularly be interested in the findings as it helps gauge the cost impact of regulatory burden the legislation imposes. The compliance cost burden could affect the overall competitiveness of Australian financial institutions particularly because of the small size of the economy in terms of population.

This is the first paper in the literature that has attempted to estimate the cost of AMLCTF compliance. It is believed that the study could provide an impetus for similar studies in other jurisdictions.

This paper examines the financial challenges of single mothers in Brunei, illustrating how single parenting affects their lifestyle choices and the coping mechanisms these mothers employ to grapple with their financial hardships.

This study adopts a qualitative approach, utilizing semi-structured interviews with five single mothers living in the Brunei-Muara district. The collected data were analyzed using thematic analysis.

Results revealed participants described operating with a single income, covering bills alone, the high cost of living in Brunei and the absence of alimony contributed to their financial challenges. Financial stress caused them to change their spending habits, switch to cheaper alternatives, make sacrifices and struggle to meet the needs of their children. Coping mechanisms adopted by single mothers utilized social support, generating side income, and the unique roles of children played a significant role in cushioning the impact of their financial difficulties.

Single mothers are on the rise in Brunei. There is an acute lack of studies emphasizing the financial hardships experienced by single mothers in Brunei. This study attempts to narrow the missing gap and seek avenues of justice for single mothers in a progressive, equitable society.

The purpose of this study was to identify contextual factors that affect the ability of caregivers to provide necessary supports to mentally ill individuals. Context was defined here as the socially patterned arrangements of peoples' everyday lives and the social and cultural meanings attached to them. Three contextual areas of caregiver burden were explored: race, role responsibility, and relationship between caregiver and the mentally ill individual. Using a stress process model as a guide for our analysis we examined the role of contextual factors, primary stressors and social supports as predictors of several dimensions of caregiver burden: objective financial burden, subjective financial burden, and household disruptions. Analyses were based on interviews with 219 caregivers of persons with severe persistent mental illness who were part of randomized clinical trial of outpatient commitment (OPC) combined with community based treatment. The findings provide evidence of the importance of environmental context in structuring different aspects of caregiver burden, in particular the influence of race and relationship with the client. Parents and spouses experienced more financial burden and household disruptions than other relationships and African American caregivers reported more subjective financial burden than whites. African American caregivers also were more tolerant of client behaviors than whites. Instrumental social support and help with the client were predictors of caregiver burden. The latter was interpreted as evidence of a support mobilization effect.

According to generally accepted accounting practice, the objective of financial statements is to provide useful information to the primary user groups of such statements, regardless of the size of the entity. The primary users of the financial statements of SMEs are the owners, South African Revenue Services (SARS) and bankers. The recognition, measurement and disclosure requirements of full IFRSs do not result in cost‐effective and useful information being provided to the users of the financial statements of SMEs (non‐listed companies, close corporations and other small entities, irrespective of their legal form), because these users do not need the extensive and complex information provided in general purpose financial statements. Consequently, an accounting standard is required to differentiate between general and limited purpose financial statements. The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) issued an exposure draft (ED 222) on IFRS for SMEs in February 2007. These stipulated modifications relating mainly to relaxed disclosure requirements and are more applicable to medium‐sized entities. According to a survey among preparers of financial statements in June 2007, these developments may not be adequate for the purposes of smaller entities, irrespective of their legal form. Accordingly, the study recommends that a formal, separate set of simplified differential reporting standards be developed for smaller entities.

The purpose of this investigation is to gain insight into parents' perceptions of benefits vs burdens (value) of educational and healthcare service received for their child with ASD. Parents are the main integrators of long-term educational and healthcare service for their child with ASD.

Design/methodology/approach included (1) a sentiment analysis of discussion forum posts from an autism message board using a rule-based sentiment analysis tool that is specifically attuned to sentiments expressed in social media and (2) a qualitative content analysis of one-on-one interviews with parents of children diagnosed with ASD, complemented with interviews with experienced educators and clinicians.

Findings reveal the link between customized service integration and long-term benefits. Both parents and service providers emphasize the need to integrate healthcare and educational service to create holistic long-term care for a child with ASD. Parents highlight the benefits of varied services, but availability or cost are burdens if the service is not publicly provided, or covered by insurance. Service providers' lack of experience with ASD and people's ignorance of the challenges of ASD are burdens.

Ensuring health outcomes for a child with ASD requires an integrated service system and long-term, customer-centric service process because the scope of service covers the child's entire childhood. Customized educational and healthcare service must be allocated and budgeted early in order to reach the goal of a satisfactory service output for each child.

This is the first service research to focus on parents' challenges with obtaining services for their child with ASD. This paper provides service researchers and managers insight into parents' perceptions of educational and healthcare service value (i.e. benefits vs. burdens) received for their child with ASD. These insights into customer-centric perceptions of value may be useful to research and may help service providers to innovate and provide integrated service directly to parents, or indirectly to service providers, who serve children with ASD.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether financial distress explains the relationship between financial literacy and quality of life (QoL) among consumers who have faced life-threatening cancer. To extend this line of research, the moderating role of social supports in the relationship between financial distress and QoL is examined.

A cross-sectional survey was utilized to collect quantitative data through a self-administered questionnaire. A total of 223 consumers diagnosed with cancer in Iran participated in the study by means of a convenience sampling technique. Using a forward–backward method the questionnaire was translated from English into Persian.

The findings highlight the importance of financial literacy in managing direct and indirect costs of chronic diseases that in turn can improve consumers' QoL. Moreover, while perceived social support improves QoL of consumers diagnosed with cancer, it strengthens the negative association between financial distress and QoL. Consequently, solely receiving of emotional support from acquaintances with no financial support might be bothersome.

The findings highlight the need for interventions that target financial literacy and perceived financial distress for consumers with chronic diseases. These consumers can benefit from interventions that offer support based on accurate assessments of their needs and priorities.

The present study is the first of its kind to highlight the importance of financial literacy in improving the QoL of consumers with chronic diseases.