Structural determinants of gender gaps in financial inclusion in Ghana: evidence from Fairlie decomposition analysis

PurposeThis study examines what drives gender gaps in financial inclusion in Ghana across four financial services, namely formal accounts, savings, credit and insurance, and tests whether mobile money or structural factors are the primary drivers.Design/methodology/approachA recursive bivariate probit model estimates gender-specific determinants of financial service use while correcting for the endogeneity of mobile money adoption. A Fairlie decomposition then isolates the contribution of mobile money and structural covariates to observed gender gaps, including MoMo × education and MoMo × income interaction terms.FindingsStructural factors, particularly education, income and employment, explain 85–90% of gender gaps in account ownership and credit use; mobile money's contribution becomes negligible once these are controlled. Mobile money retains an independent role in savings and insurance but widens rather than closes these gaps. Two behavioural patterns emerge: women hold more accounts than men yet save less, reflecting mental accounting and loss aversion; and higher financial literacy reduces insurance uptake, consistent with ambiguity aversion. Mobile money complements financial capital, with effects rising monotonically with income, and follows an inverted-U pattern with education.Practical implicationsClosing gender gaps requires addressing structural inequalities in education, employment and income, not only expanding digital access. Policies should direct wages and social transfers into accounts held in women's names, expand female labour market participation, deploy commitment savings products to convert account ownership into saving behaviour, and simplify insurance contracts to reduce the ambiguity aversion barriers that suppress women's uptake.Originality/valueThis is the first microdata decomposition of gender gaps across four financial services in Ghana. It integrates behavioural finance explanations for the account-savings and literacy-insurance paradoxes and tests whether mobile money amplifies or substitutes for human and financial capital, finding consistent income complementarity and a non-linear education relationship.