IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eme/ijsepp/ijse-10-2019-0640.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Consumer financial distress during economic downturn: evidence from five provinces of Zimbabwe

Author

Listed:
  • Richard Chamboko
  • Rumbidzai K.T. Chamboko

Abstract

Purpose - Despite the inescapable picture of hardships and circumstances in Zimbabwe, there has not been dedicated research focused on understanding the management of household finances, particularly to assess financial distress and how it varies among Zimbabweans. This study aims to use survey data to measure financial distress and ascertain the socioeconomic, demographic and behavioural factors associated with it among Zimbabweans. Design/methodology/approach - A sample of 1,006 survey respondents from five provinces of Zimbabwe was used. The principal component analysis approach was used to create a composite financial distress score. Thet-test for the equality of means and analysis of variance were used to test for the difference in financial distress between groups, whilst the ordinary least squares regression was used to determine the factors associated with financial distress after controlling for other factors. Findings - The study found that consumer financial distress was mainly explained by locality (urban/rural and province), frequency and level of income (informality) and age. Having saved in the past 12 months did not significantly differentiate savers from non-savers on financial distress. The study also found that gender, level of education, marital status, role in household financial decision-making and role in household provisioning were not significant predictors of financial distress. Research limitations/implications - The findings have policy implications, especially for the government of Zimbabwe, its agencies and local authorities. Enacting policies that create opportunities for inclusive and sustainable livelihoods and economic growth should be the priority. In addition, instituting favourable policies that allow informal business to grow, formalise and integrate with the formal economy may help to sustainably grow the economy and alleviate the financial hardships among consumers. For consumers, adopting financial behaviours that ensure that they live within their means cannot be over emphasised. Originality/value - This is the first paper to profile the socioeconomic, demographic and behavioural factors associated with financial distress during the economic downturn among the impoverished Zimbabweans. Peer review - The peer review history for this article is available at:https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-10-2019-0640.

Suggested Citation

  • Richard Chamboko & Rumbidzai K.T. Chamboko, 2020. "Consumer financial distress during economic downturn: evidence from five provinces of Zimbabwe," International Journal of Social Economics, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 47(9), pages 1123-1142, August.
  • Handle: RePEc:eme:ijsepp:ijse-10-2019-0640
    DOI: 10.1108/IJSE-10-2019-0640
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/IJSE-10-2019-0640/full/html?utm_source=repec&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=repec
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers

    File URL: https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/IJSE-10-2019-0640/full/pdf?utm_source=repec&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=repec
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1108/IJSE-10-2019-0640?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eme:ijsepp:ijse-10-2019-0640. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Emerald Support (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.