Financialisation of everyday life: exploring socio economic behaviour in Southern European Countries

Despite the growing literature on the financialisation of everyday life, studies that empirically examine the various theoretical approaches to it have been scarce. This paper aims to bridge this gap by analysing the financialisation of individuals' socio-economic behaviour in Southern Europe. To this effect, we used data from the second wave of the Household Finance and Consumption Survey (HFCS), drawn up by the European Central Bank in 2016. Firstly, we designed an operational model of the financialisation of everyday life based on variables related to individual financial behaviour, household money management, and the perception of economic risk. Secondly, we conducted a Multiple Correspondence Analysis (MCA) combined with a Cluster Analysis (CLA) to study the behaviour of individuals in Spain, Italy, Greece, and Portugal. The results question the financialisation of individual economic action in Southern Europe and point to the characterisation of a heterogeneous pattern of socio-economic behaviour in the region. This paper opens a new methodological and theoretical research agenda, since the literature on financialisation could benefit from our operational model of everyday life financialisation by applying it to further surveys.