Household expenditure, debt and happiness in the rural area

Abstract

The resources of expenses among consumers were not only from their regular earning but also from loan money that was borrowed in order to help supporting the inadequate resources of the households. The objective of this study is to determine the structural relationships among “household debt”, “expenditure pattern”, “debt value” and “happiness” in the rural Thai households. The model will be analyzed based on the data from sample survey, using a stratified random sampling technique. After developing the model, the multiple regression technique will be used to test the significance of the hypothesized model. Moreover, we know that the income from regular earning tended to be spent carefully such as in households’ basic needs for daily living, children's education fee, social living such as :- making merit in any opportunity, savings, and investment to get some benefit in the future. On the contrary, it was found that households would not spend their working income on any immoral activities such as :-lottery, bets, whisky, beer, cigarette and paying back installments. In addition, expenses for the immoralacts were usually come from loans. Recently, there was a policy called the Populism Policy that would allow rural villagers easily access to the source of loans. Under this policy especially the Village Fund Project, borrowers were expected to use money for investment or in other words to generate income so that households would be able to clear all their debts. However, it seems that the policy failed and the outcome was just the opposite. That was, it caused more debts. In addition, it helped to stimulate a new value or a fad among rural people that being in debt or borrowing money was a normal matter. Finally, it was found that the happiness of household members was negatively related to the debt of the Village Fund Project. However, their happiness will be increased when they earn and spend their income honestly.