Loved, but not embraced? Examining the “female financial paradox” in India

Purpose The purpose of the study is to gauge financially independent married women’s participation in their family’s financial decision-making process. Furthermore, this study examines the moderating effect of marriage age (the age at marriage) on the relationship between financial independence and financial decision-making. Design/methodology/approach A simple random sampling technique is used to collect primary responses from married female bank employees working in various public, private, and regional rural banks in India. Data analysis is performed using AMOS, a covariance-based structural equation modeling approach. Findings The two-fold findings include, first, financial independence has a partial positive effect on financial decision-making, and second, women who marry at an early age have lower participation in financial decision-making compared to women who marry later. Originality/value Although this research is developed based on existing literature on financial independence and financial decision-making, this study asserts that it is the first to investigate the connection between them. It elucidates the novelty of this work and its significant contribution to the present behavioral finance literature. Furthermore, marriage age is usually studied as a control variable, whereas this research considers financially independent women’s marriage age as a moderator to investigate its effect on the less-explored linkage between financial independence and financial decision-making in the context of emerging economies such as India.