Jing Jian Xiao

Although digital financial services are emerging, whether adopting digital payment influences consumer vulnerability remains understudied and debated. This study aims to examine mechanisms linking digital payment adoption, financial fragility, financial worry, and national socioeconomic development. Guided by information and communication technology for development (ICT4D), financial capability, and consumer vulnerability theories, we utilized multilevel modeling on a unique multisource dataset including 122,717 adults across 139 economies. Digital payment adoption was negatively associated with financial fragility across levels, while its associations with financial worry were positive at the individual level and negative at the country level on average. Such associations were manifested through suppressive partial mediation pathways and exhibited heterogeneous strengths across regions worldwide. The analysis revealed double‐edged effects of consumer digital payment adoption and uncovered cross‐level development paradoxes in digital financial vulnerability. Specifically, although digital adoption reflects human adaptation to crisis‐driven transformation, it simultaneously exacerbates specific dimensions of consumer fragility. The “macro–micro mismatch” identified a paradox capturing structural forces in shaping consumer welfare. The cross‐level interactions identified another “enabling–amplifying context” functioning as diverse roles of socioeconomic development environments. This study contributes a comprehensive and comparative framework to the multidisciplinary research on digital finance and well‐being. It also informs policymakers about co‐creating inclusive financial ecosystems to address consumer vulnerability alongside the macro‐level development of digitalization, financialization, and globalization.

We use data from a nationally representative survey in the U.S. to examine whether overconfidence in the ability to detect fraud is related to self-reported fraud victimization. Results show that male, younger, and higher-income respondents are more likely to exhibit fraud detection overconfidence than their respective counterparts. Further, respondents who are overconfident in their fraud detection ability are less likely to report losing money to financial fraud.

Purpose: The purpose of this extended editorial is to document the status of personal finance course offerings at universities and colleges in the U.S. Design/methodology/approach: With the assistance of generative AI tools, data on personal finance courses offered at universities and colleges in the U.S. were collected. The course dataset was merged with a dataset compiled by Carnegie Mellon Foundation with institutional characteristics. Findings: Results demonstrate that 14% of the higher education institutions in the U.S. offer personal finance courses for credits. Among them, institutions that are very large, public, highly research active, with low access and having students with higher earnings after graduation are most likely to offer personal finance courses among comparable groups. In addition, land grant, regional public, community engagement and with medical center universities are more likely to offer personal finance courses, compared to their counterparts. Among personal finance courses offered, most are for undergraduate students, the most common credit hours are three, the most common course title is “personal finance” or a title including a phrase of “personal finance,” and the most commonly offering unit is college of business administration. Originality/value: To the author's knowledge, this is the first attempt to provide an overview of personal finance offerings at universities and colleges in the U.S. based on a unique, comprehensive dataset.

Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) is reshaping consumer shopping by introducing new forms of decision support while also creating new tensions. Using the technology paradox perspective as a sensitizing theoretical lens alongside delegation theory, this study examines how perceived GenAI benefits (process efficiency, personalization, creative discovery, and immersive experience) and constraints (hallucination potential, privacy intrusiveness, algorithmic opacity, and information biases) are associated with performance ambiguity, emotional ambivalence, and autonomy threat through substitutive and augmentative delegation‐related use patterns. Using survey data from 438 Chinese consumers, partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS‐SEM) showed that process efficiency was negatively associated with substitutive delegation and positively associated with augmentative delegation. Perceived hallucination potential was also negatively associated with substitutive delegation, whereas perceived information biases were positively associated with it. Substitutive delegation was positively associated with all three consumer tensions, while augmentative delegation was negatively associated with emotional ambivalence and autonomy threat but was not significantly associated with performance ambiguity. Furthermore, a separate stage‐based comparison analysis with 400 additional respondents revealed differences among four purchase‐stage samples. Emotional ambivalence was higher in the discovery and comparison samples than in the purchase and post‐purchase samples, whereas performance ambiguity and autonomy threat differed only in selected stage comparisons. The findings extend understanding of consumer responses to GenAI‐assisted shopping and offer implications for designing more transparent, controllable, and consumer‐centered GenAI shopping tools.

Purpose: Previous research shows that the capability approach is associated with lower poverty rates and higher well-being. Nonetheless, little research applied this approach to understanding economic hardship. To fill this gap, this study applies this approach to explore whether financial capability mitigates racial/ethnic disparities in economic hardship in the USA. Design/methodology/approach: Data were from the US 2022 Survey of Consumer Finances. Multivariate logistic and ordered regressions were used to examine of the association between financial capability, measured both through individual components and a composite index, and pandemic-induced economic hardship. Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition analyses were used to evaluate the extent to which financial capability explain racial/ethnic disparities in economic hardship. Findings: Logistic results indicated that compared to Whites, Blacks were 134–143% more likely, Hispanics 47–50% more likely and other racial groups 93–115% more likely to experience hardship. Financial capability was consistently and negatively associated with hardship. Decomposition analyses further revealed that the financial capability index explained 8–12% of the Black-White disparity, 19–21% of the Hispanic-White disparity and 5–7% of the difference between Whites and other racial groups. Research limitations/implications: This study used data from a single country, which limits the generalizability of the findings to nations with different economic trajectories and cultural contexts. The cross-sectional nature of the data provides only suggestive rather than conclusive evidence of reduction effects of financial capability factors on economic hardship. Practical implications: Financial institutions can apply these insights to design products and services that better meet the needs of minority groups. By recognizing the significant association between economic hardship and financial behavior, lenders and financial advisors may benefit from tailoring guidance, underwriting practices and outreach strategies to the diverse circumstances of different racial/ethnic groups. Social implications: Policymakers should take note of the significant contributions of financial capability, education, occupation and credit access to the disparities observed among racial/ethnic groups. These findings suggest the need for policies that enhance financial capability, especially among minority groups. For example, expanding access to financial education programs that are culturally and linguistically appropriate could help bridge knowledge gaps. Additionally, policies aimed at expanding access to credit for minority groups, such as regulating fair lending practices and offering support for first-time homebuyers, may help mitigate economic hardship. Originality/value: This study applies the capability framework to investigate the extent to which financial capability contributes to economic hardship across racial/ethnic groups. Using Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition analysis, we dissect relative contributions of financial literacy, financial behavior and demographic factors to economic hardship.

College years are a critical transition period from financial dependence to financial independence for young adult college students but research on financial independence of this population is limited. The purpose of this exploratory, mixed‐method study is to identify types of young adult college students in terms of financial independence. With data from a sample of college students at a public university in the U.S., cluster analyses show four distinct clusters regarding their funding sources for education: parental dependent, scholarship dependent, loan dependent, and self‐dependent. These clusters show differences in student characteristics. Among them, self‐dependents and loan dependents are the most vulnerable. These students tend to work more hours during the academic year and summer and have more financial responsibilities. Results also show several personal finance topics demanded by students differ by clusters. Similarity analyses indicate cluster differences when students interpret the meaning of financial independence.

Using data from 251 Indian parent–child dyads, we examine whether money attitudes of young adults reflect their parents' money attitudes. We also study whether parental money attitudes have a direct or indirect impact on the financial wellbeing (FWB) of their adult child. Confirmatory factor analysis yielded four distinct money attitudes viz. power‐prestige, retention‐time, distrust, and anxiety. Estimated PLS‐SEM path models indicate that parental money attitudes are positively related to corresponding attitudes of their children. Parental anxiety had an indirect negative association with the child's FWB, mediated via parental FWB and child's anxiety. Parental retention‐time had an indirect positive impact on the child's FWB mediated through parental FWB. Parental power‐prestige and distrust did not affect child's FWB. Model fit parameters indicate high levels of in‐sample validity and out‐of‐sample predictive ability. Our results provide novel evidence for the intergenerational transmission of money attitudes and its impact on FWB. Policy implications are discussed.

Purpose: Purposive credit card behavior refers to using credit cards to purchase different types of goods, as measured by a discrete variable. This study aims to explore the relationship between digital financial literacy and purposive credit card behavior in the context of digitization and diversified consumer demands. Design/methodology/approach: Employing data from the China Household Finance Survey, this study uses a multinomial probit model to examine the above relationship. It measures digital financial literacy using the coupling coordination degree model. The Karlson-Holm-Breen method serves to verify mediating effects. Findings: Consumers with high levels of digital financial literacy are more likely to use credit cards to cope with small daily expenditures rather than purchasing large, durable goods such as houses and automobiles. This process occurs via the use of digital tools and is affected by digital risk avoidance and digital credit availability. Originality/value: First, this study investigates the drivers of purposive credit card behavior, which is an emerging perspective compared to existing literature that focuses on drivers of rational credit card behavior. Second, it measures digital financial literacy through the coupling coordination degree model. This method has unique advantages over the entropy weight method used in prior research, as it captures the interaction between digital and financial literacy.