Behavioral Aspects Of The Population’s Consumer And Financial Activity

The behavioral aspects of consumer and financial activity, the issues of their correlation, as well as the directions of their stimulation remain insufficiently elaborated

The concepts of consumer and financial activity should be divided, because their manifestation has different motivation and various nature of consumer behavior. Hence, there should be different approaches for managing and stimulating such activities.

For having achieved the goal of stimulating the economy, the state faces a problem either to increase the final demand (consumption) or to increase investments

The choice is not always clear and it is due not only to economic, but also social and political factors, as well as national characteristics of consumer behavior.

The main determining factor here is the standard of living and the amount of received income. If there is a lack of funds to meet basic needs and pay for mandatory services, an increase in financial activity is out of the question.

• There are studies, according to which the higher the share of food costs in the consumer's budget, the poorer he is and the lower the share is, the richer he is. Thus, according to the US Department of agriculture in 2014, the share of these costs (excluding food in the public catering) in the US budget was 6.5%, in Germany it was 10.6%, in Russia and 56.6% in Nigeria ( Engel, 1881).

• In 2015 and 2016 the situation in Russia did not improve, that is, nutrition costs were 32.8% and 33.5% respectively (Official statistics, 2017). If we look at the dynamics of expenditures of the Russian population for almost 20 years (figure 1 ), the picture has not changed, if in 1997 the share of costs on the purchase of goods and services was 69.85%, in 2016 it was 70.72%. For the entire period of research, this figure did not only decrease, but even increased to 82.44% in 2012.

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There have also been no visible changes in the consumption of goods and services, so the share of expenditure on services remains roughly at the same level. This fact means that the quality of life is not improving ("The lack of budget growth", 2016). In the context of falling real incomes in Russia, this characterizes the so-called economical type of consumer behavior.

• If we follow the theory, we can recognize the fact that Russian population in recent decades has not become richer. This is confirmed by the actual data. Only in January 2018, for the first time in more than three years, the real disposable income of the population stopped falling (figure 2 ).

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• As for the financial activity of the Russian customers, it is also possible to observe certain stagnation. The level of investment activity over the past 20 years has remained steadily low and has not reached 15% in the structure of total expenditures

Meanwhile, the structure of financial investments looks insufficiently productive. After observing the behavior of such expenses for the period from 1997 to 2016 (figure 3 ) it is possible to notice a rather high share of investments in foreign currency which in the Russian reality is considered to be either a speculative or a protective asset and does not carry out function of an investment resource in the economy.

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Such model of investment and savings behavior does not absolutely correspond to the behavior of a financially enlightened consumer and especially to the goals of increasing consumer and financial demand in the economy ( Imaeva, Ajmaletdinov, & Sharova, 2017; Svetlova, 2017).

The current situation with consumer demand in Russia is considered to be a negative trend, when the lack of consumption growth is compensated by changes in its quality

This is a very serious problem, which can lead not only to a decline in the quality of life, but also to more harmful consequences that can affect the health of the nation as a whole. Hence, the protection of consumer interests is becoming large-scale and of high importance at the level of national security interests.

Another goal of the policy of economic incentives should be to optimize the nature of the financial behaviour of citizens and strengthen investment activity with the subsequent introduction of deferred consumer demand

The solutions of this task should be sought in the consistent formation of the citizens’ financial (investment) culture. ( "Assessment of the level of financial", 2017; "Results from PISA" 2015); "Research of financial literacy", 2017

At the present stage of the Russian economy development it seems necessary to develop a consumer culture in general

A competent consumer will choose a better product, thereby stimulating competition and clearing the market from fake products, and what is more, a financially educated (cultural) consumer will use convenient and effective services, encouraging further growth of scientific and technological progress and financial innovation, and competition in the financial sector, saving him from unscrupulous and ignorant financial institutions.

The main idea is to optimize consumer and financial behavior of Russian citizens on the basis of the concept for the consumer and investment culture formation ( "National financial education improvement", 2013; "Strategy and growth of financial", 2017; Zelentsova, Bliskavka, & Demidov, 2012)

The choice of priorities to stimulate consumer or financial activity is due not only to economic, social and political factors, but it is also due to national characteristics of consumer behavior ( Miloslavskij Gerasimov, Tranova, Gerasimova, & Hejlyk, 2016).

The situation with consumer demand in Russia is characterized by a negative trend, and investment (financial) demand reveals low productivity.

In order to increase consumer and financial demand in the Russian economy, it is necessary to form an appropriate model of investment and savings behavior among the Russian population.