IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0320725.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Factors shaping subjective financial well-being in emerging adults: A comparative study of Italy and Germany

Author

Listed:
  • Maria Rosa Miccoli
  • Yury Shevchenko
  • Paola Iannello
  • Ulf-Dietrich Reips

Abstract

Academics and policymakers recognize the growing importance of subjective financial well-being for emerging adults, yet little is known about the factors influencing the subjective financial well-being perceived by the emerging adult population. We aim to investigate the role of socio-demographic characteristics (job type, age, country of residence), individual differences in financial knowledge (financial literacy), skills (financial behavior), cognitive response styles (impulsiveness, future orientation, and maximization), and attitudinal components (trust in governmental institutions and financial professionals) in shaping subjective financial well-being among emerging adults in Italy and Germany, representing the Mediterranean and Northern models of the transitions to adulthood, respectively. A sample of 385 participants residing in Italy (n = 193) and Germany (n = 192) voluntarily participated in an online survey. Variables such as trust and maximization were incorporated into a prior financial well-being model to assess their relevance in predicting subjective financial well-being. In Model 1, variables from the prior theoretical model (socio-demographic characteristics, financial literacy, financial behavior, impulsiveness, and future orientation) were analyzed. In Model 2, trust and maximization were added as predictors of subjective financial well-being. Results revealed that the inclusion of these variables improved the model fit, and further confirmed the significant role of age, financial behavior (specifically, caring for financial matters), impulsiveness, future orientation, and trust in governmental institutions in subjective financial well-being.

Suggested Citation

  • Maria Rosa Miccoli & Yury Shevchenko & Paola Iannello & Ulf-Dietrich Reips, 2025. "Factors shaping subjective financial well-being in emerging adults: A comparative study of Italy and Germany," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 20(4), pages 1-20, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0320725
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0320725
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0320725
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0320725&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0320725?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. John F. Helliwell & Haifang Huang & Shun Wang, 2016. "New Evidence on Trust and Well-being," NBER Working Papers 22450, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Fleurbaey, Marc & Schwandt, Hannes, 2015. "Do People Seek to Maximize Their Subjective Well?Being?," IZA Discussion Papers 9450, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Annamaria Lusardi & Olivia S. Mitchell, 2017. "Older Women's Labor Market Attachment, Retirement Planning, and Household Debt," NBER Chapters, in: Women Working Longer: Increased Employment at Older Ages, pages 185-215, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Stefano Bartolini & Francesco Sarracino, 2021. "Happier and Sustainable. Possibilities for a post-growth society," Department of Economics University of Siena 855, Department of Economics, University of Siena.
    2. Van Landeghem, Bert & Vandeplas, Anneleen, 2018. "The relationship between status and happiness: Evidence from the caste system in rural India," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 62-71.
    3. Hamilton,Kirk E. & Helliwell,John F. & Woolcock,Michael, 2016. "Social capital, trust, and well-being in the evaluation of wealth," Policy Research Working Paper Series 7707, The World Bank.
    4. Alpaslan Akay & Olivier B. Bargain & H. Xavier Jara, 2023. "Experienced versus decision utility: large‐scale comparison for income–leisure preferences," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 125(4), pages 823-859, October.
    5. Annamaria Lusardi & Olivia S. Mitchell & Noemi Oggero, 2020. "Debt and Financial Vulnerability on the Verge of Retirement," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 52(5), pages 1005-1034, August.
    6. Asyraf Afthanorhan & Abdullah Al Mamun & Noor Raihani Zainol & Hazimi Foziah & Zainudin Awang, 2020. "Framing the Retirement Planning Behavior Model towards Sustainable Wellbeing among Youth: The Moderating Effect of Public Profiles," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(21), pages 1-24, October.
    7. Adler, Matthew D. & Dolan, Paul & Kavetsos, Georgios, 2017. "Would you choose to be happy? Tradeoffs between happiness and the other dimensions of life in a large population survey," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 60-73.
    8. Youngwon Nam & Cäzilia Loibl, 2021. "Financial Capability and Financial Planning at the Verge of Retirement Age," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 42(1), pages 133-150, March.
    9. Barbara Pertold-Gebicka & Dominika Spolcova, 2019. "Family Size and Subjective Well-being in Europe: Do More Children Make Us (Un)Happy?," Working Papers IES 2019/24, Charles University Prague, Faculty of Social Sciences, Institute of Economic Studies, revised Aug 2019.
    10. Mattauch, Linus & Hepburn, Cameron, 2016. "Climate policy when preferences are endogenous – and sometimes they are," INET Oxford Working Papers 2016-04, Institute for New Economic Thinking at the Oxford Martin School, University of Oxford.
    11. Alpaslan Akay & Olivier Bargain & H. Xavier Jara, 2020. "‘Fair’ welfare comparisons with heterogeneous tastes: subjective versus revealed preferences," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 55(1), pages 51-84, June.
    12. Kyoung Tae Kim & Somer G. Anderson & Martin C. Seay, 2019. "Financial Knowledge and Short-Term and Long-Term Financial Behaviors of Millennials in the United States," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 40(2), pages 194-208, June.
    13. Shaun da Costa & Koen Decancq & Marc Fleurbaey & Erik Schokkaert, 2024. "Preference elicitation methods and equivalent income: an overview," PSE Working Papers halshs-04840652, HAL.
    14. Leonardo Becchetti & Luca Corazzini & Vittorio Pelligra, 2018. "We Can Be Heroes. Trust and Resilience in Corrupted Economic Environments," CEIS Research Paper 429, Tor Vergata University, CEIS, revised 11 Apr 2018.
    15. Alpaslan AKAY & Olivier BARGAIN & H. Xavier JARA, 2022. "Experienced versus Decision Utility: Large-Scale Comparison for Income-Leisure Preferences," Bordeaux Economics Working Papers 2022-23, Bordeaux School of Economics (BSE).
    16. Anil Kumar & Che-Yuan Liang, 2024. "Labor Market Effects of Credit Constraints: Evidence from a Natural Experiment," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 16(3), pages 1-26, August.
    17. Kevin Denny, 2017. "Are the Effects of Height on Well-Being a Tall Tale?," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 18(5), pages 1445-1458, October.
    18. Schwandt, Hannes, 2016. "Unmet aspirations as an explanation for the age U-shape in wellbeing," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 75-87.
    19. Adekunle Adedeji & Babatola Dominic Olawa & Saskia Hanft-Robert & Tosin Tunrayo Olonisakin & Tosin Yinka Akintunde & Johanna Buchcik & Klaus Boehnke, 2023. "Examining the Pathways from General Trust Through Social Connectedness to Subjective Wellbeing," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 18(5), pages 2619-2638, October.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:plo:pone00:0320725. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    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.