Authors: Jorge N. Zumaeta
Journal: Journal of Risk and Financial Management
Abstract: This research study focuses on the social preference parameters and financial decisions among welfare populations receiving social benefits in Miami, Florida. Understanding the attitudes and primary motivations that shape financial decision-making is of great interest to economists, marketers, and other social scientists. The implications of developing a solid understanding of these attitudes and motivations are vast in terms of erecting tangible and sensitive workforce development policies to assist the specific population studied. This study is designed to determine whether significant differences exist in the strength of preference parameters between welfare participants and other populations. The preference parameters assessed in this paper were self-interest, altruism, trust, and reciprocity, both positive and negative. The control group in this study is college students. The results from the experiments show that welfare recipients exhibit similar behavioral patterns and make financial decisions in a manner similar to the general population. In other words, the control group and the experimental group did not differ significantly in their financial decision processes. This finding has several implications for how economists and policymakers assess and approach policymaking; nevertheless, the question remains whether or not there are other preference parameters that differ between the two groups.
Key Findings
- This study has demonstrated that welfare recipients and the general population demonstrate similar financial decision-making patterns in a variety of settings.
- The similar trust and reciprocity behaviors across these groups validates that cooperation-based interventions already proven effective with mainstream jobseekers should be transferred into welfare-to-work settings.
- Additionally, the gender gap in which female recipients are more giving and reciprocal in these games than their male counterparts suggests an opportunity for workplace settings: position female participants as “reciprocity anchors” or peer coaches within mixed-gender cohorts to raise task efforts and performance.
- The absence of ethnicity effects in these various settings suggests that ethnic employment gaps are a product of more structural access barriers (transport, childcare, discrimination), rather than individual behaviors.
Citation: Zumaeta, J.N. Social Preference Parameters Impacting Financial Decisions Among Welfare Recipients. J. Risk Financial Manag.2025, 18, 408. https://doi.org/10.3390/jrfm18080408