IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/jitecd/v29y2020i8p1018-1048.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Financial inclusion and inequality: A cross-country analysis

Author

Listed:
  • Armand Fouejieu
  • Ratna Sahay
  • Martin Cihak
  • Shiyuan Chen

Abstract

In the context of increasing economic inequality, linkages between finance and the distribution of wealth and income have attracted considerable attention. This paper examines the relationships between access to and use of financial services – financial inclusion – and economic inequality. Building on new dataset on availability and use of financial services, the analysis provides empirical estimates of the impact of financial inclusion on inequality, and explores potential nonlinearities in this relationship by highlighting the role of the prevailing macroeconomic and financial conditions. The paper also sheds light on financial inclusion gender gaps and investigates how disproportionate exclusion of women from usage of financial services affects income inequality. Finally, the study provides proxies for measuring extreme inequality, and examines the linkages between those variables and financial inclusion.

Suggested Citation

  • 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.
  • Handle: RePEc:taf:jitecd:v:29:y:2020:i:8:p:1018-1048
    DOI: 10.1080/09638199.2020.1785532
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/09638199.2020.1785532
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/09638199.2020.1785532?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 search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Park, Cyn-Young & Mercado, Rogelio, 2015. "Financial Inclusion, Poverty, and Income Inequality in Developing Asia," ADB Economics Working Paper Series 426, Asian Development Bank.
    2. 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.
    3. Petra Valickova & Tomas Havranek & Roman Horvath, 2015. "Financial Development And Economic Growth: A Meta-Analysis," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(3), pages 506-526, July.
    4. Pascaline Dupas & Jonathan Robinson, 2013. "Savings Constraints and Microenterprise Development: Evidence from a Field Experiment in Kenya," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 5(1), pages 163-192, January.
    5. James B. Davies & Susanna Sandström & Anthony Shorrocks & Edward N. Wolff, 2011. "The Level and Distribution of Global Household Wealth," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 121(551), pages 223-254, March.
    6. Richard Blundell & Monica Costa Dias & Costas Meghir & Jonathan Shaw, 2016. "Female Labor Supply, Human Capital, and Welfare Reform," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 84, pages 1705-1753, September.
    7. Esther Duflo, 2012. "Women Empowerment and Economic Development," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 50(4), pages 1051-1079, December.
    8. Prina, Silvia, 2015. "Banking the poor via savings accounts: Evidence from a field experiment," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 16-31.
    9. Ross Levine, 1997. "Financial Development and Economic Growth: Views and Agenda," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 35(2), pages 688-726, June.
    10. repec:imf:imfsdn:15/8 is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Sylviane Guillaumont Jeanneney & Kangni Kpodar, 2011. "Financial Development and Poverty Reduction: Can There be a Benefit without a Cost?," Post-Print halshs-00554229, HAL.
    12. Seema Jayachandran, 2006. "Selling Labor Low: Wage Responses to Productivity Shocks in Developing Countries," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 114(3), pages 538-575, June.
    13. Pierre Monnin, 2017. "Monetary Policy, Macroprudential Regulation and Inequality," Discussion Notes 1702, Council on Economic Policies.
    14. Mookerjee, Rajen & Kalipioni, Paul, 2010. "Availability of financial services and income inequality: The evidence from many countries," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 11(4), pages 404-408, December.
    15. Ratna Sahay & Martin Cihak & Papa M N'Diaye & Adolfo Barajas & Diana B Ayala Pena & Ran Bi & Yuan Gao & Annette J Kyobe & Lam Nguyen & Christian Saborowski & Katsiaryna Svirydzenka & Seyed Reza Yousef, 2015. "Rethinking Financial Deepening; Stability and Growth in Emerging Markets," IMF Staff Discussion Notes 15/08, International Monetary Fund.
    16. Shushu Li & Jinglan Zhang & Yong Ma, 2015. "Financial Development, Environmental Quality and Economic Growth," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(7), pages 1-22, July.
    17. Sylviane Guillaumont Jeanneney & Kangni Kpodar, 2011. "Financial Development and Poverty Reduction: Can There be a Benefit without a Cost?," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(1), pages 143-163.
    18. Ratna Sahay & Martin Cihak & Papa M N'Diaye & Adolfo Barajas & Srobona Mitra & Annette J Kyobe & Yen N Mooi & Seyed Reza Yousefi, 2015. "Financial Inclusion; Can it Meet Multiple Macroeconomic Goals?," IMF Staff Discussion Notes 15/17, International Monetary Fund.
    19. 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.
    20. Hossein Jalilian & Colin Kirkpatrick, 2005. "Does Financial Development Contribute to Poverty Reduction?," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(4), pages 636-656.
    21. Ms. Ratna Sahay & Mr. Martin Cihak & Mr. Papa M N'Diaye & Mr. Adolfo Barajas & Ms. Srobona Mitra & Ms. Annette J Kyobe & Yen N Mooi & Mr. Seyed Reza Yousefi, 2015. "Financial Inclusion: Can it Meet Multiple Macroeconomic Goals?," IMF Staff Discussion Notes 2015/017, International Monetary Fund.
    22. Sylviane Guillaumont Jeanneney & Kangni Kpodar, 2011. "Financial Development and Poverty Reduction: Can There Be a Benefit Without a Cost?," Post-Print halshs-00601306, HAL.
    23. Hamori, Shigeyuki & Hashiguchi, Yoshihiro, 2012. "The effect of financial deepening on inequality: Some international evidence," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 23(4), pages 353-359.
    24. Thorsten Beck & Asli Demirgüç-Kunt & Ross Levine, 2007. "Finance, inequality and the poor," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 12(1), pages 27-49, March.
    25. Mohammed Ziaur Rehman & Nasir Ali & Najeeb Muhammad Nasir, 2015. "Financial Development, Savings and Economic Growth: Evidence from Bahrain Using VAR," International Journal of Financial Research, International Journal of Financial Research, Sciedu Press, vol. 6(2), pages 112-123, April.
    26. Manuel Arellano & Stephen Bond, 1991. "Some Tests of Specification for Panel Data: Monte Carlo Evidence and an Application to Employment Equations," Review of Economic Studies, Oxford University Press, vol. 58(2), pages 277-297.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Okowa, Ezaal, Vincent & Moses Owede, 2022. "‘Financial Inclusion-Income Inequality’ Nexus in Nigeria: Evidence from Dynamic Ordinary Least Square (DOLS) Modeling Approach," International Journal of Research and Scientific Innovation, International Journal of Research and Scientific Innovation (IJRSI), vol. 9(2), pages 84-94, February.
    2. 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.
    3. 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).
    4. Helena Susana Amaral Geraldes & Ana Paula Matias Gama & Mário Augusto, 2022. "Reaching Financial Inclusion: Necessary and Sufficient Conditions," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 162(2), pages 599-617, July.
    5. 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.
    6. Victoria I. Okafor & Isaiah O. Olurinola & Ebenezer Bowale & Romanus Osabohien, 2023. "Financial development and income inequality in Africa," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-10, December.
    7. Miyajima, Ken, 2022. "Mobile phone ownership and welfare: Evidence from South Africa’s household survey," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    8. Simona Malovana & Jan Janku & Martin Hodula, 2023. "Macroprudential Policy and Income Inequality: The Trade-off Between Crisis Prevention and Credit Redistribution," Working Papers 2023/3, Czech National Bank.
    9. Patrick N. Osakwe & Olga Solleder, 2023. "Wealth Distribution, Income Inequality and Financial Inclusion: A Panel Data Analysis," UNCTAD Working Papers #4, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.
    10. Eduardo Polloni-Silva & Naijela da Costa & Herick Fernando Moralles & Mario Sacomano Neto, 2021. "Does Financial Inclusion Diminish Poverty and Inequality? A Panel Data Analysis for Latin American Countries," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 158(3), pages 889-925, December.
    11. Ofori, Isaac K. & Gbolonyo, Emmanuel Y. & Toyo Dossou, Marcel A. & Nkrumah, Richard K. & Nkansah, Emmanuel, 2023. "Towards inclusive growth in Africa: Remittances, and financial development interactive effects and thresholds," Journal of Multinational Financial Management, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    12. Madeira, Carlos, 2023. "The evolution of consumption inequality and risk-insurance in Chile," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    13. Kebede, Jeleta & Selvanathan, Saroja & Naranpanawa, Athula, 2021. "Foreign bank presence, institutional quality, and financial inclusion: Evidence from Africa," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).
    14. Isaac K. Ofori & Emmanuel Y. Gbolonyo & Marcel A. Toyo Dossou & Richard K. Nkrumah & Emmanuel Nkansah, 2023. "Towards inclusive growth in Africa: Remittances, and financial development interactive effects and thresholds," Working Papers of the African Governance and Development Institute. 23/024, African Governance and Development Institute..
    15. 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.
    16. Singh Tanu & Pande Sarveshwar, 2023. "Indian Government Schemes Based Analysis on Women Empowerment In Financial Inclusion," Studia Universitatis „Vasile Goldis” Arad – Economics Series, Sciendo, vol. 33(4), pages 1-22, December.
    17. Zhang, Jiaping & Zhang, Huirong & Gong, Xiaomei, 2022. "Mobile payment and rural household consumption: Evidence from China," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(3).
    18. 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.
    19. Carlos Madeira, 2023. "Use of Financial Instruments among the Chilean households," Working Papers Central Bank of Chile 974, Central Bank of Chile.
    20. Margaret Rutendo Magwedere & Godfrey Marozva, 2022. "Financial Stability and Income Inequality in Developing Countries," Prague Economic Papers, Prague University of Economics and Business, vol. 2022(6), pages 464-481.
    21. Ofori, Isaac K. & Gbolonyo, Emmanuel Y. & Dossou, Marcel A. T. & Nkrumah, Richard K. & Nkansah, Emmanuel, 2023. "Towards inclusive growth in Africa: Remittances, and financial development interactive effects and thresholds," MPRA Paper 116958, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    22. Park, Sungmin & Kim, Young-Han, 2023. "The impact of macroprudential policy on inequality and implications for inclusive financial stability," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 146(C).
    23. Isaac K. Ofori & Emmanuel Y. Gbolonyo & Marcel A. Toyo Dossou & Richard K. Nkrumah & Emmanuel Nkansah, 2023. "Towards inclusive growth in Africa: Remittances, and financial development interactive effects and thresholds," Working Papers 23/024, European Xtramile Centre of African Studies (EXCAS).
    24. Wen Wu & Leow Hon-Wei & Siyao Yang & Iskandar Muda & Zhaoyi Xu, 2023. "Nexus between financial inclusion, workers’ remittances, and unemployment rate in Asian economies," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-10, December.

    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. Coulibaly, Aïssata & Yogo, Urbain Thierry, 2020. "The path to shared prosperity: Leveraging financial services outreach to create decent jobs in developing countries," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 131-147.
    2. Boukhatem, Jamel, 2016. "Assessing the direct effect of financial development on poverty reduction in a panel of low- and middle-income countries," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 214-230.
    3. Giulia Bettin & Claudia Pigini & Alberto Zazzaro, 2020. "Financial inclusion and poverty transitions: an empirical analysis for Italy," Mo.Fi.R. Working Papers 164, Money and Finance Research group (Mo.Fi.R.) - Univ. Politecnica Marche - Dept. Economic and Social Sciences.
    4. Sunny Kumar Singh & Chandan Kumar Jha, 2023. "Are financial development and financial stability complements or substitutes in poverty reduction?," The European Journal of Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(17), pages 2001-2031, November.
    5. Madhu Sehrawat & A. Giri, 2016. "Financial development, poverty and rural-urban income inequality: evidence from South Asian countries," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 50(2), pages 577-590, March.
    6. Kabakova, Oksana & Plaksenkov, Evgeny, 2018. "Analysis of factors affecting financial inclusion: Ecosystem view," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 198-205.
    7. Muri Wole Adedokun & Mehmet Ağa, 2023. "Financial inclusion: A pathway to economic growth in Sub‐Saharan African economies," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(3), pages 2712-2728, July.
    8. Gnangnon, Sèna Kimm, 2021. "Effect of poverty on financial development: Does trade openness matter?," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 97-112.
    9. Raja Almarzoqi & Sami Ben Naceur & Akshay Kotak, 2015. "What Matters for Financial Development and Stability?," IMF Working Papers 2015/173, International Monetary Fund.
    10. Gnangnon, Sèna Kimm, 2021. "Do Unilateral Trade Preferences Help Reduce Poverty in Beneficiary Countries?," EconStor Preprints 247346, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    11. Sèna Kimm Gnangnon, 2023. "Do unilateral trade preferences help reduce poverty in beneficiary countries?," International Journal of Economic Policy Studies, Springer, vol. 17(1), pages 249-288, February.
    12. 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.
    13. 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.
    14. Chakravarty, Satya R. & Pal, Rupayan, 2013. "Financial inclusion in India: An axiomatic approach," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 35(5), pages 813-837.
    15. Inoue, Takeshi, 2018. "Financial development, remittances, and poverty reduction: Empirical evidence from a macroeconomic viewpoint," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 59-68.
    16. Madhu Sehrawat & A. K. Giri, 2018. "The impact of financial development, economic growth, income inequality on poverty: evidence from India," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 55(4), pages 1585-1602, December.
    17. Shruti Malik & Girish Chandra Maheshwari & Archana Singh, 2019. "Understanding Financial Inclusion in India: A Theoretical Framework Building Through SAP–LAP and Efficient IRP," Global Journal of Flexible Systems Management, Springer;Global Institute of Flexible Systems Management, vol. 20(2), pages 117-140, June.
    18. Aïssata COULIBALY & Urbain Thierry YOGO, 2016. "Access to Financial Services and Working Poverty in Developing Countries," Working Papers 201620, CERDI.
    19. Relwendé Sawadogo & Gervasio Semedo, 2021. "Financial inclusion, income inequality, and institutions in sub-Saharan Africa: Identifying cross-country inequality regimes," International Economics, CEPII research center, issue 167, pages 15-28.
    20. Marc Steffen Rapp & Iuliia A. Udoieva, 2018. "What matters in the finance–growth nexus of advanced economies? Evidence from OECD countries," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 50(6), pages 676-690, February.

    More about this item

    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:taf:jitecd:v:29:y:2020:i:8:p:1018-1048. 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: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/RJTE20 .

    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.