Sources and Methods of Gathering Economic Information by Household Members

The article continues the authors’ exploratory analysis of the determinants of contemporary households’ behaviour in a turbulent environment, undertaken in a broader research context. The aim of the article are: a) to identify current sources of information and ways of gathering knowledge and experience in contemporary households, b) to confirm the validity of considering them as potential predictors of household financial decisions. The hypotheses we ad-opted in the study assume that (1) households use accumulated knowledge and experience when making financial decisions regardless of the location of their residence; (2) the sources of economic information, ways of accumulating knowl-edge and experience depend on the age and education of the person making the greatest financial contribution to the household budget; (3) the decision-making process in households confirms the significant influence of social and expert factors on the gathering (accumulation and, consequently, diffusion) of knowledge and experience. The following methods were used in the study: (a) a critical analysis of literature in the field of sources and channels of obtain-ing and collecting information, as well as methods of transferring knowledge and experience between entities; (b) comparative analysis; and (c) pilot surveys. For the purpose of the study, 11 potential sources of economic information and 13 ways of knowledge and experience transmission were identified. The results of the pilot study confirm that households use accumulated knowledge and experience when making financial decisions regardless of the location of the residence; knowledge accumulated in the form of secondary information, i.e. already processed and at least partially interpreted, provided in the course of the exchange of views within households and by people from their environment, is more important than primary sources of information.