Busara Center for Behavioral Economics

Much of financial inclusion literature and interventions designed have focused on the “representative individual” and therefore have not accounted for the complexity of environmental and contextual factors within households that affect financial behaviours of the household.

This is especially important in India, where inter and intra-level household dynamics heavily influence financial decisions taken by individuals within them. This study aims to understand household financial decision-making, by focusing on the various inter-household dynamics, household norms, and behavioural factors at play. By using a mixed-methods approach and leveraging a mix of in-depth interviews and non-traditional research tools such as participatory photography, gamification of household decisions, etc. this study will generate insights which will help designing behavioural interventions and testing them in a lab-in-field experiment.

These insights will likely provide a preliminary understanding of how to design behavioural interventions to improve financial products and their take up, but also create new products that better cater to the needs of households.