Saving behavior in emerging country: The role of financial knowledge, parent socialization and peer influence / Juliana Mohd Abdul Kadir and Amirul Azri Jamaluddin

The household debt in Malaysia was recorded at 83 per cent of gross domestic
product in 2018. This contributed to insufficient amount of saving by household who are mostly
not prepared for retirement. Meanwhile, youths in emerging countries however are reported as
the main group trapped into the financial problem. The tendency of saving among individual is
different from one another due to differences in financial knowledge, parent’s socialization,
peers influence, self-control and financial stress based on Theory of Planned Behavior. A
survey was conducted on 126 students in emerging countries to examine the factors which
affected their savings behavior. Structured questionnaires were distributed using convenient
sampling technique. Results revealed that parent socialization, financial knowledge and peer
influence have a significant effect on students’ saving behavior. Findings serve to inform policy
makers who are formulating strategies to enhance students’ financial knowledge and to
maximize the role of parents and peers in order to encourage higher saving behavior in
emerging countries.