Does self-control constitute a driver of millennials’ financial behaviors and attitudes?

• Published in: Journal of behavioral and experimental economics Vol. 93; p. 101702
• Main Authors: Rey-Ares, Lucía, Fernández-López, Sara, Castro-González, Sandra, Rodeiro-Pazos, David
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier Inc 01.08.2021; Elsevier Science Ltd
• Subjects: Attitudes; Behavior; Decision making; Financial attitudes; Financial behavior; Financial literacy; Financial management; Loans; Millennial generation; Millennials; Policy making; Self control; Spain; Well being; Financial literacy; Self-control; Financial attitudes; Millennial generation; Financial behavior; Spain
• ISSN: 2214-8043; 2214-8051
• DOI: 10.1016/j.socec.2021.101702

•This paper is the first to consider financial self-control as a driving force of millennials’ financial behaviors.•Those millennials who are able to control their own impulses are more likely to invest.•Those millennials who are able to control their own impulses display a positive financial attitude.•Self-control fails to constitute a driving force of millennials’ indebtedness decisions.•Financial decisions involving long time horizons seem not to be influenced by the individual's self-control. Millennials are currently facing particular financial challenges that will condition the future financial well-being of the society as a whole, and the decision-making process happening in worse circumstances than those of preceding generations. However, few studies to date have deeply analyzed millennials’ financial behaviors, and particularly, how self-control operationalizes their financial choices. Using data from the 2017 Survey of Financial Competences of Spanish individuals, this paper analyzes how self-control influences different financial behaviors and attitudes and whether this effect differs between millennials and older generations. The results indicate that self-control does influence the individuals’ financial attitudes regardless of generation, whereas in the case of financial behaviors, only those millennials exhibiting the highest levels of self-control are affected by it when deciding on a saving account or a personal loan. These outcomes have numerous significant implications, in addition to providing recommendations to policy makers aimed at engaging millennials in healthier financial behaviors.