Against the odds: Unveiling the racial dynamics of financial resilience in post-apartheid South Africa

IF 2.5 3区经济学 Q3 BUSINESS

Journal of Consumer Affairs Pub Date : 2024-11-07 DOI:10.1111/joca.12608

Felix Essel-Gaisey PhD, Tsun-Feng Chiang PhD

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Abstract

Recent economic shocks have intensified financial distress and inequality, prompting research into the factors contributing to financial resilience. Previous studies have primarily employed unidimensional measures of financial resilience, neglecting the role of race. This paper addresses knowledge gaps by exploring how race influences financial resilience. Using data from the South African National Income Dynamic Study, this paper constructs a multidimensional financial resilience index, examines the relationship between race and financial resilience, and identifies potential mediating variables. The results indicate that approximately 52% of South Africans are financially resilient. Empirically, propensity score matching shows that Non-Whites exhibit approximately 11% lower financial resilience levels than whites. Additionally, the Oaxaca–Blinder decomposition proves that discrimination accounts for approximately 3.7% of this disparity. Financial resilience among Non-Whites would have increased by 1.5% if they had similar characteristics to Whites. Furthermore, mental health disorders and low trust mediate the relationship between race and financial resilience.

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克服困难：揭示种族隔离后南非金融弹性的种族动态

最近的经济冲击加剧了金融困境和不平等，促使人们对促进金融弹性的因素进行研究。以前的研究主要采用单一的财务弹性指标，忽视了种族的作用。本文通过探索种族如何影响金融弹性来解决知识差距。本文利用南非国民收入动态研究的数据，构建了多维金融弹性指数，考察了种族与金融弹性之间的关系，并确定了潜在的中介变量。结果表明，大约52%的南非人在经济上具有弹性。根据经验，倾向得分匹配显示，非白人的金融弹性水平比白人低约11%。此外，瓦哈卡-布林德的分解证明，歧视约占这一差距的3.7%。如果非白人具有与白人相似的特征，他们的财务弹性将提高1.5%。此外，心理健康障碍和低信任在种族与财务弹性的关系中起中介作用。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Journal of Consumer Affairs Multiple-

CiteScore

4.60

自引率

17.90%

发文量

期刊介绍： The ISI impact score of Journal of Consumer Affairs now places it among the leading business journals and one of the top handful of marketing- related publications. The immediacy index score, showing how swiftly the published studies are cited or applied in other publications, places JCA seventh of those same 77 journals. More importantly, in these difficult economic times, JCA is the leading journal whose focus for over four decades has been on the interests of consumers in the marketplace. With the journal"s origins in the consumer movement and consumer protection concerns, the focus for papers in terms of both research questions and implications must involve the consumer"s interest and topics must be addressed from the consumers point of view.