WHERE DOES THE WOMEN DEBT COME FROM? CONSTRUCTION AND VALIDATION OF A PLS-PM MODEL

Abstract

The exacerbate consumption may lead many individuals to contract debts which commite a significant portion of their income and, in many cases, eventually taking into default. The default often brings with it devastating effects in both macroeconomic point of view, increasing the risk of operations and financial products, such as from the individual standpoint, affecting his social, psychological state and family life. Moreover, the bigger women participation in labor market brought greater financial independence and empowerment in decision and consequently larger power of consumption decision and at the same time, more responsibility on financial management and borrowing decisions. Thus, this study focused on the identification and analysis of factors which affect the indebtedness propensity, among women in the Rio Grande do Sul western-central mesoregion. This study proposes a structural model to determine the relationships among the women indebtedness propensity determinants of that mesoregion, considering variables which compose the constructs of SOCIAL STATUS, CONCERN, STABILITY, PLEASURE, POWER, BUDGET, ILLUSION and MATERIALISM. For this, were applied 2,500 questionnaires statistically scattered among the 31 cities which compose the mesoregion. Data were analyzed by Partial Least Squares - Path Modeling (PLS-PM) methodology. In summary, the results suggest that the construct INDEBTEDNESS is associated with SOCIAL STATUS, CONCERN and MATERIALISM, corroborating with the Behavioral Finance theories, suggesting that decisions involving borrowing go beyond the simple consumption and income relationship, i.e., there are other behavioral variables which are important in the time that individual contract debts, such as the meaning that the individual attaches to money and the materialism level.