The sphere of personal or household finances has been the subject of numerous theoretical and empirical studies in recent years. Some researchers focus on the adoption of financial decisions at the individual level. (Most often, they study the financial behavior of investors in the stock market or pension savings market.) Others examine a couple or a household as a unit of analysis. Regardless of the study perspective, it is interesting to study the financial behavior and the factors that determine financial decisions. The selection of these factors will contribute to the customization of financial products, that is, the individual adjustment of financial products for each client. Understanding the factors of financial behavior is the first step to forecasting it. The purpose of this article is to identify the main factors of individual financial behavior. The research method is a critical review of domestic and foreign studies, which determines the factors influencing individual financial behavior. It shows that there are internal factors (intellectual, psychological, and socio-demographic characteristics), as well as external factors, which include territorial, cultural features, economic and infrastructural opportunities, and political factors. The most important determinants of financial behavior are financial literacy and psychological factors. The financial literacy level has a greater influence on making savings strategies and credit decisions than the size of personal income, a factor traditionally regarded as the key determinant of financial behavior. There is also a significant influence of psychological factors on the individual’s decision-making. Regression analysis shows that psychological factors have a greater influence on financial behavior than economic ones.







AlterEconomics

Economic science today fails to answer the question of whether the terms “investment climate” and “investment attractiveness” are identical in meaning. The time-based approach to the assessment of the investment climate of a region suggested by the author draws a clear distinction between the notions of investment attractiveness and investment climate. The investment attractiveness evaluation makes use of the investment potential and risk; the conclusion on the investment climate of a region is made based on the data about its investment attractiveness over a long-term period (10 years and more). Therefore, the investment climate of a region is regarded as its investment attractiveness in the dynamic aspect. The author’s time-based approach has been tried out on three regions—the Nizhny Novgorod Region, the Smolensk Region, and the Republic of Buryatia. The information sources included statistical data for 2001–2012, statutory documents, and news media. The evaluation of the investment climate in the regions exposed negative tendencies. The information on the Smolensk Region and the Republic of Buryatia provides evidence of the end of the “linear growth” period of the investment attractiveness observed earlier in 2002–2007. The Nizhny Novgorod Region is so far holding its position; investors are still hoping for a slight growth in the years to come. Even so, the investment risks are high for all the regions analyzed, and the investment climate can be characterized as weakly favorable. It may be assumed that the basic function describing the dynamics of the investment attractiveness (trend search) looks like a sine wave. However, this assumption can only be proved by statistical data gathered over 20 or more years.


Finance: Theory and Practice

The current system of social support for the population is regulated by a large number of federal and regional regulatory legal acts adopted over the past 25 years. This creates significant problems for beneficiaries. For instance, these acts do not allow one to quickly focus on what measures of social support are available and under what conditions the beneficiaries are entitled to them. In addition, these legal acts pose certain difficulties for the authorities themselves. During the development of the legal field in the field of social support, not only has the terminology changed, but the principles and approaches to social protection have changed as well. There is an objective need to systematize the existing legislation. The subjects of the Russian Federation took the path of codification: Social codes of the Astrakhan, Belgorod, Volgograd, Leningrad, Omsk, Yaroslavl regions, and the city of St. Petersburg have already been adopted. The article provides a comparison of the social codes of the regions of Russia according to six criteria: basic concepts, goals and objectives of the code, principles of social legislation, the structure of the code, the presence of formulas for calculations in the text of the code, and the limitation of action in time. Following the analysis, recommendations were made to the constituent entities of the Russian Federation on the codification of social legislation.



Actual Problems of Russian Law

Currently, regional authorities need to assess the effectiveness of their social support systems, as well as compare themselves with other regions to increase the effectiveness of budget expenditures, including social protection. To accomplish this task, the World Bank, the Ministry of Finance of Russia, and NIFI are working together to create a Russian version of the ASPIRE database. This database, for the first time in the world, presents data on regional budgets. It includes the provision and financing of social support measures at the subnational level. The creation of this base gives an incentive not only for international but also for intra-Russian interregional comparisons. Regions can compare their social support systems and choose the best practices to implement. The article presents several variants of such interregional analysis based on the Russian version of ASPIRE. There are comparisons of the social support measure’s structure, analysis of the spending dynamics for social support in the regions for 2013–2016, and the number of recipients of “small measures” support analysis.




Financial Journal