| In this dissertation, I aim to clarify the factors affecting a consumers' choice between the Internet and a financial planner for making saving and investment decisions, based on household production theory. Moreover, I explore the likelihood of an individual being an Internet user (vs. a non-user), a financial planner user (vs. a non-user), a mixed user (vs. a non-user), an Internet user (vs. a mixed user) or a financial planner user (vs. a mixed user). First, using the data from the combined set of 2001, 2004, and 2007 Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF), I investigated the proportion of U.S. households using the Internet, a financial planner, both, or neither. I found that Internet usage for making saving and investment decisions grew from 12% in 2001 to 20% in 2007. In contrast, financial planner usage statistics for the same purpose slightly decreased during the same period, from 18% to 15%. More interestingly, the proportion of mixed users, who use the Internet in addition to a financial planner, increased from 4% to 7%. Extending these results to multivariate analyses, I tested whether or not time constraints, monetary constraints, and human resource constraints affect a consumer's choice between using the Internet and a financial planner. I found that monetary constraints and human resource constraints affected consumer decisions in choosing between the Internet and a financial planner, which supports household production theory. Unlike my hypothesis, however, time constraints (e.g., working hours per week, presence of a young child under the age of 5) did not bear any significant relationship in making a choice between the Internet and a financial planner. Moreover, the effects of time constraints were not found to be significant on the likelihood of being an Internet user, a financial planner user, and a mixed user. Overall, these results suggest that younger consumers with a Bachelor's degree and less financial assets are more likely to use the Internet, instead of a financial planner or in addition to the financial planner. |
