A bibliometric and thematic review of the behavioral and psychological foundations of intra-household financial decision-making

The study of intra-household financial decision-making (IH-FDM) has become a growing field of research in household finance, behavioral economics and consumer research. This study is a bibliometric and thematic synthesis that will move the focus from the individual-level perspective to the "intra-household financial decision-making dynamics”. But the current research is still scattered in disciplinary approaches and has not yet been integrated across psychological, socio-cultural, institutional and technological dimensions. To address this gap, this study employs a hybrid systematic literature review approach that combines bibliometric analysis and thematic synthesis to analyze the intellectual development and conceptual structure of the research on IH-FDM from 2002 to 2025. The review is conducted in accordance with the SPAR-4-SLR protocol and 158 peer-reviewed journal articles are retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection database. The bibliometric analysis was performed by Bibliometrix and VOSviewer to reveal publication trends, influential journals and keyword co-occurrence networks. In addition to the bibliometric analysis, thematic synthesis was conducted using open, axial, and selective coding procedures, based on the Antecedents–Decisions–Outcomes (ADO) framework. The results show five main bibliometric clusters and seven interconnected thematic areas: financial decision-making structures, financial literacy and capability, socio-cultural and institutional influences, psychology of risk acceptance and financial behavior, digital engagement and adoption dynamics, crisis-driven financial decision-making, and household financial well-being, trust, and vulnerability. The synthesis shows that the bargaining structure, psychological mechanisms, socio-cultural conditions, institutional environments, and digital financial technologies interact to influence intra-household financial decision-making. The study contributes by proposing an integrative IH-FDM framework that synthesizes fragmented literature and offers a structured future research agenda for household finance research in increasingly complex financial environments.