Hyderabad:The Indian School of Business (ISB), in collaboration with the US National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), hosted its annual ISB-NBER conference on the theme “Household Finance across the Lifecycle” at the Hyderabad campus. The two-day event brought together leading economists, academics, and subject-matter experts from India and abroad to deliberate on critical aspects of household financial behaviour.

The conference, a flagship collaboration between the ISB and the NBER, aims to advance cutting-edge research and foster policy dialogue on major economic issues. Through research paper presentations and panel discussions, participants examined diverse themes including household consumption and savings, responses to financial windfalls, the impact of inflation on portfolio rebalancing, disparities in home loan access, and the role of health and deposit insurance in ensuring household financial stability.

Shilpa Aggarwal, Associate Professor at ISB, emphasised the importance of the deliberations: “The two-day conference brought together leading economists to examine how households make financial decisions across different stages of life. The insights shared have significant implications for both policy and practice in India's rapidly evolving economy. The discussions also highlight ISB’s continuing commitment to fostering research that strengthens household financial resilience and informs policy thinking.”

The event featured distinguished voices from academia and policy, including Raghuram Rajan, former Governor of the Reserve Bank of India and Professor at the University of Chicago and NBER; Viral V. Acharya, former Deputy Governor of the RBI and Professor at New York University and NBER; Pulak Ghosh, Professor at IIM-Bangalore; James M. Poterba, Professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Tarun Ramadorai, Professor at Imperial College London; and Shashwat Alok, Professor at ISB.

Delegates engaged in lively discussions on how households adapt financial strategies across different life stages, with implications for designing inclusive financial systems and resilient policy frameworks. The conference reaffirmed ISB’s role as a hub for global academic exchange and its commitment to advancing research that informs both practice and policy in India’s dynamic economic landscape.