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griffin tucker

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how do spending habits change when an individual is paid daily as opposed to weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly?

i'm curious to see if there have been any studies done on people who arrange their finances so that they get paid daily (or their spending account is paid into daily) and the effects of what they spend their money on.

so, does anyone know of such a study?

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Topics: microfinance
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    Feyisayo Anjorin 50+

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    Aug 13 2012: I dont know of the research statistics; but I think it depends on the individual.
    Some people have budgets and financial plans, and they try to follow it; some people spend impulsively. People who are paid weekly or daily may have a relatively short-term budget; while monthly salaries gives one more time to stick to a spending plan.
    The impulsive spenders will get their money quickly on a weekly or daily pay, and blow it quickly; while a monthly pay will only extend the time between being paid and a spending spree.
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      griffin tucker 10+

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      Aug 13 2012: this is exactly the type of individual i'm talking about: the compulsive spender.

      would a compulsive spender eventually learn that over a 6-month time period of being paid every day that they would not have to spend money every day just because they have it? or would they learn to save money?
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    Fritzie Reisner 100+

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    Aug 13 2012: You may be more successful in identifying studies on this subject by doing an internet search. The chance is much lower that participants here will be aware of research in a particular area than your friendly neighborhood internet search engine.
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      griffin tucker 10+

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      Aug 13 2012: i did do a brief internet search, couldn't find exactly what i was looking for
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        Fritzie Reisner 100+

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        Aug 13 2012: Oh, good. Sometimes people don't realize that we don't have active experts on everything here!

        Try searching the Journal of Economic Literature. That would be my first stop for a question like yours. The article I am linking to here is a 2012 study that finds that people spend twice as much when they received money as a one time payment than when it was doled out monthly.

        I know this is not precisely your question, but if you go to the bibliography for the article, you may find other articles that concern how the distribution of payments affects spending.

        (Forgive me if you know this already. I'd rather help too much than not enough). http://www.aeaweb.org/articles.php?doi=10.1257/pol.4.3.216
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          griffin tucker 10+

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          Aug 13 2012: the truth is, i had no idea where to start looking.

          thanks very much for the link!

          i will follow it up.
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          griffin tucker 10+

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          Aug 13 2012: found a free version of the paper here: http://ideas.repec.org/p/bcl/bclwop/bclwp053.html
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          griffin tucker 10+

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          Aug 14 2012: after about 10-20 minutes of searching i couldn't find what i was looking for. i may do a more in-depth search when i have the time.

          the paper and the papers it linked to did actually help with keywords to search for, but still no luck. thanks again.
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    James Zhang 30+

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    Aug 13 2012: I'd imagine, they are more conscious of how they handle money, rather than the weekly, bi-weekly, monthly methods. Humans learn and develop good/bad habits through repetition.

    At the same time, this can be a problem since they're spending too much time managing money per day when that time could be used elsewhere.
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      griffin tucker 10+

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      Aug 13 2012: absolutely.

      what i'm looking for is a long-term study though, say, over 6 months, where people realise eventually during the 6 month time that they don't have to spend money even though they have it. i'm talking about compulsive spenders.
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