IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/finlet/v86y2025ipas1544612325016071.html

Financial inclusion and common prosperity——cross-country evidence

Author

Listed:
  • Li, Yuan
  • Zhou, Nan

Abstract

This paper investigates how financial inclusion contributes to common prosperity using panel data from 64 countries and regions from 2007 to 2022. The results show that financial inclusion fosters economic growth and reduces income inequality, thus promoting common prosperity. The effect is stronger in higher-income countries, while lower-income countries exhibit an inverted U-shaped relationship, suggesting diminishing returns. Mechanism analysis reveals that financial inclusion advances common prosperity by expanding entrepreneurship—both in terms of participation and credit access for small and medium-sized enterprises. These findings underscore the pivotal role of inclusive finance in fostering equitable and sustainable development.

Suggested Citation

  • Li, Yuan & Zhou, Nan, 2025. "Financial inclusion and common prosperity——cross-country evidence," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 86(PA).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:finlet:v:86:y:2025:i:pa:s1544612325016071
    DOI: 10.1016/j.frl.2025.108353
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1544612325016071
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.frl.2025.108353?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Alfred Hannig & Stefan Jansen, 2010. "Financial Inclusion and Financial Stability : Current Policy Issues," Finance Working Papers 23124, East Asian Bureau of Economic Research.
    2. Martin Cihak & Ratna Sahay, 2020. "Finance and Inequality," IMF Staff Discussion Notes 20/01, International Monetary Fund.
    3. Ogechi Adeola & Olaniyi Evans, 2017. "Financial inclusion, financial development, and economic diversification in Nigeria," Journal of Developing Areas, Tennessee State University, College of Business, vol. 51(3), pages 1-15, July-Sept.
    4. Banerjee, Abhijit V & Newman, Andrew F, 1993. "Occupational Choice and the Process of Development," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 101(2), pages 274-298, April.
    5. Armand Fouejieu & Ratna Sahay & Martin Cihak & Shiyuan Chen, 2020. "Financial inclusion and inequality: A cross-country analysis," The Journal of International Trade & Economic Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(8), pages 1018-1048, November.
    6. Beck, Thorsten & Demirguc-Kunt, Asli & Martinez Peria, Maria Soledad, 2007. "Reaching out: Access to and use of banking services across countries," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 85(1), pages 234-266, July.
    7. Cyn-Young Park & Rogelio Mercado, 2018. "Financial Inclusion, Poverty, And Income Inequality," The Singapore Economic Review (SER), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 63(01), pages 185-206, March.
    8. Timothy J. Bartik, 1991. "Who Benefits from State and Local Economic Development Policies?," Books from Upjohn Press, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, number wbsle.
    9. Zhang, Cheng & Zhu, Yuyao & Zhang, Limin, 2024. "Effect of digital inclusive finance on common prosperity and the underlying mechanisms," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    10. Dutta, Nabamita & Meierrieks, Daniel, 2021. "Financial development and entrepreneurship," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 114-126.
    11. Mr. Martin Cihak & Ms. Ratna Sahay, 2020. "Finance and Inequality," IMF Staff Discussion Notes 2020/001, International Monetary Fund.
    12. Guo, Dong & Li, Lin & Pang, Guoguang, 2024. "How does digital inclusive finance affect county's common prosperity: Theoretical and empirical evidence from China," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 340-358.
    13. Alfred Hannig & Stefan Jansen, 2010. "Financial Inclusion and Financial Stability: Current Policy Issues," ADBI Working Papers 259, Asian Development Bank Institute.
    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. Feghali, Khalil & Mora, Nada & Nassif, Pamela, 2021. "Financial inclusion, bank market structure, and financial stability: International evidence," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 236-257.
    2. Guillermo Boitano & Deybi Franco Abanto, 2020. "Challenges of financial inclusion policies in Peru," Revista Finanzas y Politica Economica, Universidad Católica de Colombia, vol. 12(1), pages 89-117.
    3. Jatmiko, Wahyu & Ebrahim, M. Shahid & Smaoui, Houcem, 2023. "Sukūk development and income inequality," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    4. Zhian Zhiow Augustinne Wong & Ramez Abubakr Badeeb & Abey P. Philip, 2023. "Financial Inclusion, Poverty, and Income Inequality in ASEAN Countries: Does Financial Innovation Matter?," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 169(1), pages 471-503, September.
    5. de Moraes, Claudio Oliveira & Roquete, Raphael Moses & Gawryszewski, Gustavo, 2023. "Who needs cash? Digital finance and income inequality," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 84-93.
    6. Amit Pandey & Ravi Kiran & Rakesh Kumar Sharma, 2023. "Investigating the Determinants of Financial Inclusion in BRICS Economies: Panel Data Analysis Using Fixed-Effect and Cross-Section Random Effect," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(2), pages 1-21, January.
    7. Herradi, Mehdi El & Leroy, Aurélien, 2022. "The rich, poor, and middle class: Banking crises and income distribution," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 127(C).
    8. Barine Michael Nwidobie, 2019. "Financial Inclusion Index in Nigeria: An Exploratory Analysis," International Journal of Publication and Social Studies, Asian Economic and Social Society, vol. 4(1), pages 26-36, March.
    9. Han, Rui & Melecky, Martin, 2017. "Broader use of saving products among people can make deposit funding of the banking system more resilient," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 89-102.
    10. Ahmad Hassan Ahmad & Christopher Green & Fei Jiang, 2020. "Mobile Money, Financial Inclusion And Development: A Review With Reference To African Experience," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(4), pages 753-792, September.
    11. Wang, Rui & Luo, Hang (Robin), 2022. "How does financial inclusion affect bank stability in emerging economies?," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 51(PA).
    12. Heping Ge & Lianzhen Tang & Xiaojun Zhou & Decai Tang & Valentina Boamah, 2022. "Research on the Effect of Rural Inclusive Financial Ecological Environment on Rural Household Income in China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(4), pages 1-16, February.
    13. Georgescu, Oana-Maria & Martín, Diego Vila, 2021. "Do macroprudential measures increase inequality? Evidence from the euro area household survey," Working Paper Series 2567, European Central Bank.
    14. E. Bonhoure & R. Bawack, 2024. "Review of the Coverage of Financial Inclusion Research Since the Implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals: What Has Changed?," Post-Print hal-04828293, HAL.
    15. Carlos Madeira, 2023. "Use of Financial Instruments Among the Chilean Households," Lecture Notes in Operations Research, in: Pascal Alphonse & Karima Bouaiss & Pascal Grandin & Constantin Zopounidis (ed.), Essays on Financial Analytics, pages 63-86, Springer.
    16. Dao Ha & Phuong Le & Duc Khuong Nguyen, 2025. "Financial inclusion and fintech: a state-of-the-art systematic literature review," Financial Innovation, Springer;Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, vol. 11(1), pages 1-42, December.
    17. Peterson K. Ozili, 2021. "Financial inclusion research around the world: A review," Forum for Social Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 50(4), pages 457-479, October.
    18. Banna, Hasanul & Kabir Hassan, M. & Rashid, Mamunur, 2021. "Fintech-based financial inclusion and bank risk-taking: Evidence from OIC countries," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    19. Inoue, Takeshi, 2024. "Financial inclusion and income distribution revisited: New findings," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    20. Amiratul Nadiah Hasan & Mansor Ibrahim & Kinan Salim, 2026. "Financial inclusion and macroeconomic outcomes in developing economies: pre-COVID insights on growth, stability, and inequality," Future Business Journal, Springer, vol. 12(1), pages 1-14, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • G21 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Banks; Other Depository Institutions; Micro Finance Institutions; Mortgages
    • O11 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Macroeconomic Analyses of Economic Development

    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:eee:finlet:v:86:y:2025:i:pa:s1544612325016071. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/frl .

    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.