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Household financial assets in the process of development

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Author Info
Honohan, Patrick

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Abstract

Systematic information on household financial asset holdings in developing countries is very sparse. The author reviews some available data and current policy debates. Although financial asset holdings by households are highly concentrated, deeper financial systems are correlated with improved income distribution. For low-income countries, the relevant question for poor households is not how much financial assets they have, but whether they have any access to financial products at all. Building on and synthesizing disparate data collection efforts by others, the author produces new estimates of access percentages for over 150 countries. Across countries access is negatively correlated with poverty rates, but the correlation is not a robust one: thus the supposed anti-poverty potential of financial access remains econometrically elusive. Despite policy focus on the value of credit instruments, it is deposit products that tend to be the first to be used as prosperity increases, before more sophisticated savings products and borrowing.

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Paper provided by The World Bank in its series Policy Research Working Paper Series with number 3965.

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Date of creation: 01 Jul 2006
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Handle: RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:3965

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Related research
Keywords: Economic Theory&Research; Banks&Banking Reform; Investment and Investment Climate; Financial Intermediation; Settlement of Investment Disputes;

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Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
  1. Felix Rioja & Neven Valev, 2004. "Finance and the Sources of Growth at Various Stages of Economic Development," Economic Inquiry, Oxford University Press, vol. 42(1), pages 127-140, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  2. Patrick Honohan, 2004. "Financial development, growth, and poverty: how close are the links?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3203, The World Bank. [Downloadable!]
  3. King, Mervyn A. & Leape, Jonathan I., 1998. "Wealth and portfolio composition: Theory and evidence," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(2), pages 155-193, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  5. Claessens, Stijn, 2005. "Access to financial services: a review of the issues and public policy objectives," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3589, The World Bank. [Downloadable!]
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  6. Christopher D Carroll, 2000. "Portfolios of the Rich," Economics Working Paper Archive 430, The Johns Hopkins University,Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
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  7. Davies, James B. & Sandstrom, Susanna & Shorrocks, Anthony & Wolff, Edward N., 2008. "The World Distribution of Household Wealth," Working Papers DP2008/03, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER). [Downloadable!]
  8. Luigi Guiso & Michael Haliassos & Tullio Jappelli, 2003. "Household stockholding in Europe: where do we stand and where do we go?," Economic Policy, CEPR, CES, MSH, vol. 18(36), pages 123-170, 04. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  9. William N. Goetzmann & Alok Kumar, 2005. "Why Do Individual Investors Hold Under-Diversified Portfolios?," Yale School of Management Working Papers ysm454, Yale School of Management. [Downloadable!]
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  11. Giannetti, Mariassunta & Koskinen, Yrjö, 2003. "Investor Protection and the Demand for Equity," Working Paper Series in Economics and Finance 526, Stockholm School of Economics, revised 14 May 2003. [Downloadable!]
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  13. Philippe Aghion & Peter Howitt & David Mayer-Foulkes, 2005. "The Effect of Financial Development on Convergence: Theory and Evidence," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 120(1), pages 173-222, January.
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  14. Dehejia, Rajeev H. & Gatti, Roberta, 2002. "Child labor : the role of income variability and access to credit in a cross-section of countries," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2767, The World Bank. [Downloadable!]
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  16. Simon Johnson & John McMillan & Christopher Woodruff, 2002. "Property Rights and Finance," NBER Working Papers 8852, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  18. Honohan, Patrick, 2005. "Measuring microfinance access : building on existing cross-country data," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3606, The World Bank. [Downloadable!]
  19. Subramanian, S. & Jayaraj, D., 2006. "The Distribution of Household Wealth in India," Working Papers RP2006/116, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER). [Downloadable!]
  20. Simeon Djankov & Caralee McLiesh & Andrei Shleifer, 2005. "Private Credit in 129 Countries," NBER Working Papers 11078, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  21. Beck, Thorsten & Demirguc-Kunt, Asli & Martinez Peria, Maria Soledad, 2005. "Reaching out : access to and use of banking services across countries," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3754, The World Bank. [Downloadable!]
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  22. Bergstresser, Daniel & Poterba, James, 2004. "Asset allocation and asset location: household evidence from the survey of consumer finances," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(9-10), pages 1893-1915, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  23. Kelly, Morgan, 1995. "All their eggs in one basket: Portfolio diversification of US households," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 27(1), pages 87-96, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  25. Tokuo Iwaisako, 2003. "Household Portfolios in Japan," NBER Working Papers 9647, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
Full references

Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Beck, Thorsten & de la Torre, Augusto, 2006. "The basic analytics of access to financial services," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4026, The World Bank. [Downloadable!]
  2. Demirguc-Kunt, Asli & Levine, Ross, 2008. "Finance and economic opportunity," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4468, The World Bank. [Downloadable!]
  3. Veronica Cacdac Warnock & Francis E. Warnock, 2008. "Markets and Housing Finance," Working Papers 032008, Hong Kong Institute for Monetary Research. [Downloadable!]
  4. Claessens, Stijn & Feijen, Erik, 2006. "Finance and hunger : empirical evidence of the agricultural productivity channel," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4080, The World Bank. [Downloadable!]
  5. Beck, Thorsten & Feyen, Erik & Ize, Alain & Moizeszowicz, Florencia, 2008. "Benchmarking financial development," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4638, The World Bank. [Downloadable!]
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