Self-control as a psychological determinant of saving: The case of the Eastern Black Sea (TR 90) region

Savings are one of the important variables which reduce the foreign dependency of countries and provide individuals and companies to look to the future with more confidence. In fact, the sustainability of consumption expenditures, the easier access of companies to financing opportunities, and the elimination of current account deficit problems are closely related to savings. Approaches to the determinants of saving are discussed in the literature in line with the life-cycle income hypothesis and permanent income hypothesis, which are mostly shaped on the basis of neoclassical economics. However, psychological factors also have an effect in saving and consumption decisions. Neoclassical economics generally excludes the influence of psychological factors on economic decisions. Accordingly, approaches that consider the effect of psychological factors in saving and consumption have been developed in recent years. The biggest step towards eliminating this deficiency regarding saving decisions was the Behavioral Life Cycle Hypothesis (BLC) which was developed by Shefrin and Thaler (1988). According to BLC, in the process of consumption and saving decisions, individuals are under the influence of self-control, mental accounting and framing effect factors. Mental accounting and framing effect are essentially a result of self-control. As a matter of fact, BLC is also denominated as a self-control hypothesis. The aim of this study is to reveal the relationship between the sub-dimensions of self-control, which are redressive self-control, reformative self- control and experiential self- control and savings. In the literature, studies focusing on the relationship of self-control and savings consider self-control only as a problem of will. However, this study differs from the literature which in that it deals with different sub-dimensions of self-control. However, this study differs from the literature by dealing with different sub-dimensions of self-control. In this study, self-control was measured with the self-control scale which was developed by Rosenbaum (1980) and adapted to Turkish by Duyan et al. (2012). In the study covering 7 state university personnel in the TR 90 region, data were collected through a questionnaire and a total of 603 participants were reached. Binary logistic regression analysis method was used in order to determine the relationship between saving and self-control. As a result of the analysis, positive and significant effects of redressive and reformative self-control, which are the sub-dimensions of self-control, were determined. On the other hand, no significant effect of experiential self-control on savings was determined. Besides, regarding savings, the effect of income, home ownership and residence at personnel lodging is positive, while the time spent in working life and having children is negative. Accordingly, policy makers who intends to increase the level of savings should promote implementations at increasing the level of self-control in the society.