IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iza/izadps/dp7687.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Usage of Financial Services in South Africa: Perceptions Matter

Author

Listed:
  • Kostov, Philip

    (University of Central Lancashire)

  • Arun, Thankom Gopinath

    (University of Essex)

  • Annim, Samuel

    (University of Cape Coast, Ghana)

Abstract

This study investigates the access to and usage of financial services in South Africa. Financial services are categorised in three types namely; general accounts and services, investment/savings and insurance/assurance. Taking into account the interactions between usage of different types of financial services, we use multivariate simultaneous probit specification to examine the effect of financial perception. Our results suggests that after controlling for endogeneity of choices and a range of control variables, financial perceptions are robust determinant of access to financial services. The impact of financial perception however reduces and gradually disappears as one moves up the financial access ladder towards more advanced financial products and services. In a policy context, targeting demand-side factors to increase access to and use of financial services is advisable. This targeting however can only be successful if it is tuned to specific basic financial services and products.

Suggested Citation

  • Kostov, Philip & Arun, Thankom Gopinath & Annim, Samuel, 2013. "Usage of Financial Services in South Africa: Perceptions Matter," IZA Discussion Papers 7687, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp7687
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://docs.iza.org/dp7687.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Loomes, Graham & Sugden, Robert, 1982. "Regret Theory: An Alternative Theory of Rational Choice under Uncertainty," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 92(368), pages 805-824, December.
    2. Kon, Y & Storey, D J, 2003. "A Theory of Discouraged Borrowers," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 21(1), pages 37-49, August.
    3. Shawn Cole & Thomas Sampson & Bilal Zia, 2011. "Prices or Knowledge? What Drives Demand for Financial Services in Emerging Markets?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 66(6), pages 1933-1967, December.
    4. Michal Bauer & Julie Chytilova & Jonathan Morduch, 2012. "Behavioral Foundations of Microcredit: Experimental and Survey Evidence from Rural India," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 102(2), pages 1118-1139, April.
    5. Philip Kostov & Thankom Arun & Samuel Annim, 2012. "Determinants of Access to Finance: An Investigation into the Mzansi Intervention," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 24(3), pages 397-412, July.
    6. Levenson, Alec R & Willard, Kristen L, 2000. "Do Firms Get the Financing They Want? Measuring Credit Rationing Experienced by Small Business in the U.S," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 14(2), pages 83-94, March.
    7. Stiglitz, Joseph E & Weiss, Andrew, 1981. "Credit Rationing in Markets with Imperfect Information," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 71(3), pages 393-410, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Luca Grilli, 2005. "Internet start-ups access to the bank loan market: evidence from Italy," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(3), pages 293-305.
    2. Gabriele Angori & David Aristei, 2020. "Heterogeneity and state dependence in firms’ access to credit: Microevidence from the euro area," SEEDS Working Papers 0220, SEEDS, Sustainability Environmental Economics and Dynamics Studies, revised Feb 2020.
    3. Reto Wernli & Andreas Dietrich, 2022. "Only the brave: improving self-rationing efficiency among discouraged Swiss SMEs," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 59(3), pages 977-1003, October.
    4. Kallandranis, Christos & Drakos, Konstantinos, 2021. "Self-Rationing in European Businesses: Evidence from Survey Analysis," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 41(C).
    5. Erik Canton & Isabel Grilo & Josefa Monteagudo & Peter Zwan, 2013. "Perceived credit constraints in the European Union," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 41(3), pages 701-715, October.
    6. Koomson, Isaac & Annim, Samuel Kobina & Peprah, James Atta, 2014. "Loan Refusal, Household Income and Savings in Ghana," MPRA Paper 58049, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Annim, Samuel & Arun, Thankom Gopinath, 2013. "Is Climbing Difficult? A Gendered Analysis on the Use of Financial Services in Ghana and South Africa," IZA Discussion Papers 7688, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    8. Cole, Rebel & Sokolyk, Tatyana, 2016. "Who needs credit and who gets credit? Evidence from the surveys of small business finances," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 24(C), pages 40-60.
    9. Aicha Amrhar & Lahsen Oubdi, 2019. "Company self-rationing: The case of the Souss-Massa region," Journal of Applied Finance & Banking, SCIENPRESS Ltd, vol. 9(6), pages 1-9.
    10. Hang Thu Nguyen & Hiep Manh Nguyen & Michael Troege & Anh T. H. Nguyen, 2021. "Debt aversion, education, and credit self-rationing in SMEs," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 57(3), pages 1125-1143, October.
    11. Mustafa Caglayan & Oleksandr Talavera & Lin Xiong & Jing Zhang, 2022. "What does not kill us makes us stronger: the story of repetitive consumer loan applications," The European Journal of Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(1), pages 46-65, January.
    12. David Aristei & Gabriele Angori, 2022. "Heterogeneity and state dependence in firms’ access to bank credit," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 59(1), pages 47-78, June.
    13. Szabó, Zsolt, 2019. "Elbátortalanodott hiteligénylők a vállalati szektorban [Discouraged borrowers in the corporate sector]," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(11), pages 1145-1186.
    14. Gama, Ana Paula Matias & Duarte, Fábio Dias & Esperança, José Paulo, 2017. "Why discouraged borrowers exist? An empirical (re)examination from less developed countries," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 19-41.
    15. Xu, Nana & Shi, Jingye & Rong, Zhao & Yuan, Yan, 2020. "Financial literacy and formal credit accessibility: Evidence from informal businesses in China," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 36(C).
    16. Baek, Seungjun, 2022. "Optimal policy in lemon markets with flexible information acquisition," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 106(C).
    17. Bertrand, Jérémie & Mazza, Paolo, 2022. "Borrowers’ discouragement and creditor information," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    18. Pigini, Claudia & Presbitero, Andrea F. & Zazzaro, Alberto, 2016. "State dependence in access to credit," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 27(C), pages 17-34.
    19. Annie bellier & Wafa Sayeh & Stéphanie Serve, 2012. "What lies behind credit rationing? A survey of the literature," THEMA Working Papers 2012-39, THEMA (THéorie Economique, Modélisation et Applications), Université de Cergy-Pontoise.
    20. Chala, Alemu Tulu & Forssbaeck, Jens, 2018. "Does Collateral Reduce Loan-Size Credit Rationing? Survey Evidence," Working Papers 2018:36, Lund University, Department of Economics.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    financial; perception; behaviour; general accounts; investment; insurance; South Africa;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O16 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Financial Markets; Saving and Capital Investment; Corporate Finance and Governance
    • N27 - Economic History - - Financial Markets and Institutions - - - Africa; Oceania
    • R20 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Household Analysis - - - General

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp7687. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Holger Hinte (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/izaaade.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.