Household Finance: Financial Innovation for the Household Sector

The Institute for Financial Research (SIFR) is pleased to invite interested academics andpractitioners to a conference on “Household Finance ‐ Financial Innovation for the HouseholdSector” on August 17, 2011, in Stockholm. The conference is open to practitioners, policymakers,journalists, and researchers interested in household finance.

Conference focus:

Households are facing unprecedented challenges in managing their finances. The aging world
population is forcing governments to move towards defined contribution pension systems that
require households to be fully in charge of their pension savings. At the same time household
indebtedness has increased dramatically. Are households ready to invest sufficiently and
wisely to finance their retirement income? Are they aware of the interest rate and bankruptcy
risk they take? Does the financial industry offer products that facilitate saving for retirement or
effective interest rate management?
Recent studies on the finances of households show that individuals may deviate quite
substantially from the recommendations implied by even the most basic financial theories
suggesting that households need to be helped in taking financial decisions. Yet financial
innovation driven by household needs seems to be slow or at least suboptimal compared to
other financial markets and to product innovation of other sectors.
The main goal of the conference is to promote our understanding of the demand and supply
side of financial innovation for the household sector.

Questions that will be discussed include:

• What mistakes or biases are most harmful to household finances?
• Is financial innovation for households slow and suboptimal and, if so, why?
• Which products should be introduced to help households taking sound financial
decisions?
• Are financial markets functioning in the interest of households and, if not, how
should they be regulated?
• Are pension systems designed optimally?

Featured presenters and panelists:

The conference is open to practitioners, policy‐makers, journalists, and researchers interested
in household finance and will feature key‐note presentations by the following leading scholars
in the field:

John Y. Campbell, Harvard University
Michael Haliassos, Goethe University of Frankfurt
Brigitte C. Madrian, Harvard Kennedy School
Robert C. Merton, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

In addition, the conference will also feature an opening address by Peter Norman, Swedenʹs
Minister for Financial Markets.

The presentations will be followed by a panel debate, where panelists include
Lars Frisell, Chief Economist at the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority
Ronald Janssen, Managing Director, Ortec Finance
Per‐Olof Söderberg, Chairman, Söderberg & Partners

The conference will be followed by an academic program on Household Finance research
August 18‐19, which is part of the European Finance Association (EFA) Annual Meeting in
Stockholm. See https://fisher.osu.edu/blogs/efa2011/program/academic‐program for details.