Household Financial Fragility
Financial resilience is the ability of a household to withstand financial shocks whilst financial fragility is the opposite.
The financial shocks that households experience may appear in many different forms, for instance, a sudden reduction in earnings through unemployment, but also a reduction in the real wage induced by higher costs of living.
In practice, a household is deemed to be ‘financially resilient’ if they have sufficient savings to cope with a financial shock without resorting to extra borrowing. Studies typically find that financial fragility is diverse among the population, with levels of financial fragility varying, for example, across age, education, health and employment status.
Evidence suggests that financial education programmes in the workplace and in schools, or initiatives among households, can influence financial fragility.
Project aims
- Develop an understanding of the relative levels of financial fragility of households across South Yorkshire and the surrounding areas
- Ascertain the characteristics of individuals/households that are more likely to be financially fragile
- Explore regional geographic factors (e.g. wage growth, unemployment rates, deprivation) which may influence levels of household financial fragility and identify areas of critical need/concern.
You can access the interactive map and report below:
- Read the report
- Access the map
Watch the Household Fragility webinar
Project team:
Dr. Daniel Gray, Department of Economics (Principal Investigator)
Professor Alberto Montagnoli, Department of Economics (Principal Investigator)
Dr. Gemma Ives, Research and Innovation IT (Data Scientist)