Cognitive abilities and financial resilience: evidence from an emerging market

PurposeThe current study is to examine the association between cognitive abilities and financial resilience among millennial single parents. This study examines the role of cognitive abilities on financial resilience after controlling for key demographic variables - gender, age, university degree, employment status and staying with parents.Design/methodology/approachUsing the ordered logit regression approach, the authors analyzed results for 395 single parents (237 single mothers and 159 single fathers) aged 31 to 40 in India. Financial resilience is measured using economic resources, financial resources, financial knowledge and behavior, and social capital. The authors further provide several robustness tests to validate their findings. The results are controlled for state-fixed effects.FindingsThe authors find a significant impact of single parents' cognitive abilities on their financial resilience. This study also found that gender, age, university degree, employment status and staying with parents influence single parents' financial resilience. Single mothers are found to have higher levels of both cognitive abilities and financial resilience scores than single fathers.Practical implicationsFinancial institutions, marketers and financial advisors can find innovative ways to increase the financial resilience of single parents by improving their cognitive ability. Also, policymakers should focus on interventions to increase single parents' education level to increase their financial resilience and provide policy support to those without any parental support system.Originality/valueThis study extends the literature on financial resilience in two directions - by establishing a relationship between cognitive abilities and financial resilience and studying the financial resilience of a vulnerable societal section-millennial single parents. The study also extends the literature on single parents' financial vulnerability by establishing a relationship between key demographic variables and their financial resilience.