EXPERIENCE OF APPLICATION OF THE CATEGORY «LIFE CYCLE» IN THE STUDY OF THE ECONOMIC BEHAVIOR OF THE POPULATION

This article explores the features of economic behavior using the category «life cycle». The relevance of the research is explained by the fact that studies of the economic behavior of the population in terms of traditional variables, namely the level of income and consumption patterns, show uniform results. However, income and consumption vary with age, marital status, presence of children, family size, i. e. differentiated according to the stages of the life path of individuals and their groups. The aim of the research is to identify the features of the economic behavior of the population (on the example of financial behavior) by the stages of life cycle. We tested that not only individual demographic characteristics, but also a certain set of them determine differences in the behavior. Methods: general scientific methods (analysis and synthesis, systematization and generalization), methods of sociological analysis of data from mass surveys (descriptive analysis, decomposition). The information base was compiled by a sociological survey of the population of the Vologda Oblast, conducted in the fall of 2018 by the Vologda Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Results and conclusions. To form the «life cycle» category, we used a set of three variables – age, marital status, presence of children. As a result, 10 demographic groups were formed, corresponding to the stages of beginning and development, maturity, vanishing («extinction»). It was established that demographic groups at the stage of beginning and development are distinguished by a low proportion of those who have savings, a predominance of savings for the purchase of an apartment and expensive things, compliance with the loan payment schedule, and satisfactory financial knowledge and skills. It was determined that demographic groups at the stage of maturity are characterized by a high proportion of those who have savings and use loans, various purposes of savings, frequent violations of the loan payment schedule, and high self-assessments of financial literacy. It is shown that demographic groups at the stage of vanishing are characterized by high savings activity, the prevalence of savings for medical treatment, and low self-assessments of financial literacy. The results showed that category «life cycle» allows us to expand our understanding of the strategies of economic behavior implemented by the population.