Financial inclusion and land ownership status of women

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to empirically examine the influence of women’s land ownership status on their inclusion in developing economies. Design/methodology/approach - The study adopted a cross-sectional analysis. Data were taken from Global Findex data of World Bank and Indices of social development. Data were analysed using limited information maximum likelihood to establish the relationship between usage of basic financial services and women’s land ownership status variables. The study considers different demographic, social and economic factors as control variables. Socio-economic gender equality index and land ownership status of men are considered as instrumental variables in the estimations for controlling endogeneity problem. Findings - The study proves that there is a significant influence of women’s land ownership status on their demand and usage of basic financial services. The results show that women who own land alone have a significant relationship for formal account ownership and formal savings but are deprived of formal and informal credit. The results find that women are more likely to avail of formal credit when they are backed by someone else in the family especially men. Irrespective of the wealth quintile to which women belong, they are deprived of credit if they do not own any land. The findings also show that women in higher wealth quintiles are more active in availing credit. Research limitations/implications - The study is limited to the extent of influence of women’s land ownership status on their demand for basic financial services. Practical implications - The study recommends appropriate economic and financial policies to encourage women to own, possess and use their land for personal as well as entrepreneurial activities. The study also suggests for policies to encourage women for joint ownership of land for better credit availability. Social implications - Formal institutions must be more favourable for women in providing credit facilities because women play an essential role in economic development in developing economies. Originality/value - This study is the first of its type in providing empirical evidence that women’s land ownership status influences their demand for basic financial services in developing countries.