Professor Sumit AGARWAL
Managing Director
NUS Business School, Dept of Finance and Dept of Real Estate
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Dept of Economics
Sumit Agarwal is Low Tuck Kwong Distinguished Professor of Finance at the Business School and a Professor of Economics and Real Estate at the National University of Singapore. He is the Managing Director of Sustainable and Green Finance Institute at NUS, where he provides strategic oversight of the Institute’s research agenda, institutional partnerships and engagement with policymakers and the financial sector. He oversees SGFIN’s efforts to advance sustainability research and translate academic evidence into practical insights, tools and policy recommendations, particularly for Asia. He is also the President of Asian Bureau of Finance and Economic Research.
In the past, he has held positions as a Professor of Finance at the Business School, Georgetown University. Before that he was a senior financial economist in the research department at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago and prior to joining the Chicago Fed, he was a senior vice president and credit risk management executive in the Small Business Risk Solutions Group of Bank of America. His academic, policy and industry experience supports SGFIN’s efforts to connect sustainability research with financial-sector practice and public policy.
Sumit’s research interests include issues relating to household sustainability, financial institutions, household finance, behavioral finance, and real estate markets. A major focus of his research is understanding how household choices affect environmental, social and financial sustainability, and how households respond to policies and interventions designed to promote more sustainable behaviour. His work examines issues including energy and water conservation, air pollution, sustainable consumption, climate and environmental shocks, and the effects of environmental conditions on health and economic outcomes. He also teaches Household Sustainability in the NUS MSc in Sustainable and Green Finance Programme. He has published over 200 research articles and 7 books, with his latest book entitled Household Sustainability: Nurturing a Greener, Fairer, and More Prosperous Future. The book develops household sustainability as a field encompassing environmental sustainability, social well-being and financial resilience. He has also co-edited two collected volumes titled Impact of COVID-19 on Asian Economies and Policy Responses and Household Credit Usage: Personal Debt and Mortgages. He writes regular op-eds in The Straits Times and is featured on various media outlets like the BBC, CNBC, and Fox on issues relating to finance, banking, sustainability, and real estate markets. Sumit’s research is widely cited in leading newspapers and magazines like The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Economist, and the U.S Presidents Report to Congress. He also runs a podcast on household financial decision making called Kiasunomics.
- Household Finance and Financial Decision-Making
- Household Sustainability and Consumption
- Environmental and Climate Economics
- Real Estate Finance and Housing Markets
- Urban Economics
- Financial Institutions
- Behavioral Finance
Selected recent publications
- Agarwal, S., Wang, L., & Yang, Y. (2026).
Online consumption and sustained air pollution exposure: Evidence from a quasi-experiment in China.
Regional Science and Urban Economics, 121, 104267.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.regsciurbeco.2026.104267 - Agarwal, S., Chua, Y. H., Ghosh, P., Ghosh, S. K., & She, L. (2025).
Mortgages, subways and automobiles.
Journal of Public Economics, 252, 105522.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpubeco.2025.105522 - Adbi, A., Agarwal, S., & Natarajan, S. (2025).
Global heterogeneity in ETS rollouts and subsequent decarbonization outcomes.
Energy Economics, 132, 108921.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eneco.2025.108921 - Agarwal, S., Fan, M., & Qin, Y. (2025).
Avoid urban development policy that fuels climate risk.
Nature Climate Change.
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-025-02365-3 - Agarwal, S., Ghosh, P., & Zhang, J. (2025).
Tax policy transmission and household expenditures.
The Review of Economics and Statistics.
https://doi.org/10.1162/rest_a_01584 - Adbi, A., Agarwal, S., & Ghosh, P. (2025).
Urban noise pollution and learning in developing economies.
Nature Cities, 2, 6–7.
https://doi.org/10.1038/s44284-024-00189-4 - Agarwal, S., Qin, Y., Sing, T. F., & Zhan, C. (2025).
Sea level rise risks, adaptation strategies, and real estate prices in Singapore.
Journal of Public Economics, 241, 105290.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpubeco.2024.105290 - Agarwal, S., Chen, S., He, H., Huang, X., & Li, T. (2024).
Associations between stock market fluctuations and stress-related emergency room visits in China.
Nature Mental Health, 2, 909–915.
https://doi.org/10.1038/s44220-024-00267-5 - Agarwal, S., Ghosh, P., & Zheng, H. (2024).
Consumption response to a natural disaster: Evidence of price and income shocks from Chennai flood. Energy Economics, 131, 107323.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eneco.2024.107323 - Agarwal, S., Ding, Y. H., Kuang, W. D., & Zhu, X. (2023).
Are environmental punishments good news or bad news? Evidence from China.
Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, 120, 102847.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeem.2023.102847 - Agarwal, S., Han, Y., Qin, Y., & Zhu, H. (2023).
Disguised pollution: Industrial activities in the dark.
Journal of Public Economics, 223, 104904.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpubeco.2023.104904 - Agarwal, S., Tan, P.L., Tan-Soo, J.S. (2023)
Long-term effects of air pollution on Singapore’s national university admissions.
Applied Economics Letters
https://doi.org/10.1080/13504851.2023.2177586 - Agarwal, S., Sing, T.F., Sultana, M. (2022)
Public media campaign and energy conservation: A natural experiment in Singapore,
Energy Economics, 2022, 114 (106281)
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eneco.2022.106281 - Agarwal, S., Araral, E., Fan, M. et al. (2022)
Water conservation through plumbing and nudging.
Nature Human Behavior.
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-022-01320-y - Agarwal, S., Long, W., Yang, Y. (2021)
Impact of transboundary air pollution on service quality and consumer satisfaction.
Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 2021, Vol. 192, Pp. 357–380
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2021.10.002 - Agarwal, S., Yu, Q,. L. Shi, G. Wei H Jia. (2021)
Impact of temperature on morbidity: New evidence from China.
Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Vol. 109, Pp. 102495
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeem.2021.102495 - Agarwal, S., Wang, L., & Yang, Z.
Blessing in disguise? Environmental shocks and performance enhancement.
Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, forthcoming
http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3218812 - Agarwal, S., Fan, M., Araral, E., Yu, Q., & Zhang, H.
Do announcement and implementation of prices and subsidies differentially affect water consumption.
Nature Water, forthcoming
https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-1548726/v1
- Sumit Agarwal & Long Wang & Yang Yang, (2024)
Why We Feel Blue When the Air is Grey
Penguin Random House SEA Pte. Ltd. - Sumit Agarwal & Swee Hoon Ang & Tien Foo Sing, (2024)
Kiasunomics 3: Economic Insights for Everyday Life
World Scientific Books, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., number 13598
https://doi.org/10.1142/13598 - Sumit Agarwal & Hong Chew, (2023)
Introduction to Household Financial Management
World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd.
https://doi.org/10.1142/13165 - Sumit Agarwal & Wenlan Qian & Ruth Tan, (2020)
Household Finance: A Functional Approach
Palgrave Macmillan
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-5526-8 - Sumit Agarwal & Zhiguo He & Bernard Yeung (eds.), (2021)
Impact of COVID-19 on Asian Economies and Policy Responses
World Scientific Books, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., number 12072
https://doi.org/10.1142/12072 - Sumit Agarwal & Swee Hoon Ang & Tien Foo Sing, (2020)
Kiasunomics 2: Economic Insights for Everyday Life
World Scientific Books, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., number 11741
https://doi.org/10.1142/11741 - Sumit Agarwal & Swee Hoon Ang & Tien Foo Sing, (2017)
Kiasunomics: Stories of Singaporean Economic Behaviours
World Scientific Books, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., number 10799
https://doi.org/10.1142/10799 - Sumit Agarwal & Brent W. Ambrose (eds.), (2007)
Household Credit Usage: Personal Debt and Mortgages
Palgrave Macmillan
https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230608917