Mapping Research on Household Financial Saving Behavior: A Two-Phase Bibliometric Approach

Abstract

Household financial saving behavior has long been recognized as a critical area of interest for economists, policymakers, and financial planners. Although considerable research has been undertaken on household financial saving behavior, the existing body of work presents certain gaps and underexplored dimensions that warrant systematic investigation. The present study systematically maps global research on household financial saving behavior using a two‑phase bibliometric approach. Phase one applies a Scopus‑based performance analysis to examine publication trends across years, sources, authors, and affiliations. Phase two employs VOSviewer to analyze country‑level co‑authorship networks, keyword co‑occurrence to identify thematic patterns, and citation and co‑citation structures to reveal scholarly influence and the field’s intellectual foundations. This study provides a comprehensive bibliometric examination of research on household financial saving behavior, revealing the structural contours, intellectual drivers and thematic evolutions that shape the field. One of the key findings is that the United States and the United Kingdom exert disproportionate scholarly influence, anchoring global collaboration and citation networks, while the concentration of research around behavioral, educational, and socio‑economic themes underscores the field’s inherently interdisciplinary nature. The reliance on Scopus‑indexed publications introduces systematic blind spots. Future studies could extend this analysis by incorporating alternative databases and adopting qualitative approaches to explore context-specific factors influencing saving behavior.