IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/vrs/seejeb/v21y2026i2p37-54n1003.html

The Impact of Financial Development and Financial Inclusion on Income Inequality: Evidence from OECD Countries

Author

Listed:
  • Geci Fatos

    (PhD candidate Faculty of Economics, University of Prishtina Kosovo)

  • Toçi Valentin

    (Professor of Banking and Finance Faculty of Economics, University of Prishtina Rr. “Agim Ramadani”, 10000 Prishtinë Kosovo)

Abstract

This study examines the relationships between financial sector development, financial inclusion, and income inequality in OECD countries by utilizing panel data from 38 countries for the period 2010-2022. The impact of financial sector development and financial inclusion on Gini coefficient is examined, while applying fixed effects, random effects and GMM modeling. The results suggest that financial inclusion is associated with lower income inequality, while the effect of financial development, proxied by private sector credit, is positive but not statistically robust. We find that financial development, measured by private-sector credit, is associated with higher income inequality — a pattern consistent with credit concentration in favor of higher-income groups — whereas financial inclusion is associated with lower inequality, through channels of broadened access to savings, credit, and risk-management. This study adds value to the existing literature by providing new empirical evidence on the dynamic interplay between financial and real sectors.

Suggested Citation

  • Geci Fatos & Toçi Valentin, 2026. "The Impact of Financial Development and Financial Inclusion on Income Inequality: Evidence from OECD Countries," South East European Journal of Economics and Business, Sciendo, vol. 21(2), pages 37-54.
    • Handle: RePEc:vrs:seejeb:v:21:y:2026:i:2:p:37-54:n:1003
    DOI: 10.2478/jeb-2026-0009
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.2478/jeb-2026-0009
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.2478/jeb-2026-0009?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ozili Peterson K., 2021. "Financial Inclusion: Globally Important Determinants," Financial Internet Quarterly (formerly e-Finanse), Paradigm, vol. 17(4), pages 1-11, December.
    2. Greenwood, Jeremy & Jovanovic, Boyan, 1990. "Financial Development, Growth, and the Distribution of Income," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 98(5), pages 1076-1107, October.
    3. Alina Georgiana Manta & Gabriela Badareu & Inocentiu Alexandru Florea & Anamaria Liliana Staicu & Cătălin Valentin Mihai Lepădat, 2023. "How Much Financial Development Accentuates Income Inequality in Central and Eastern European Countries?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(18), pages 1-18, September.
    4. Oded Galor & Joseph Zeira, 1993. "Income Distribution and Macroeconomics," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 60(1), pages 35-52.
    5. Adnan Efendic & Geoff Pugh, 2015. "Institutional effects on economic performance in post-socialist transition: A dynamic panel analysis," Acta Oeconomica, Akadémiai Kiadó, Hungary, vol. 65(4), pages 503-523, December.
    6. Philippe Aghion & Ufuk Akcigit & Antonin Bergeaud & Richard Blundell & David Hemous, 2019. "Innovation and Top Income Inequality," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 86(1), pages 1-45.
    7. Abhijit Banerjee & Esther Duflo & Rachel Glennerster & Cynthia Kinnan, 2015. "The Miracle of Microfinance? Evidence from a Randomized Evaluation," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 7(1), pages 22-53, January.
    8. Barro, Robert J, 2000. "Inequality and Growth in a Panel of Countries," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 5(1), pages 5-32, March.
    9. Kamer Karakurum-Ozdemir & Melike Kokkizil & Gokce Uysal, 2019. "Financial Literacy in Developing Countries," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 143(1), pages 325-353, May.
    10. Stefano Bonini & Vincenzo Capizzi & Douglas Cumming, 2019. "Emerging trends in entrepreneurial finance," Venture Capital, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(2-3), pages 133-136, July.
    11. Jan Kiviet & Milan Pleus & Rutger Poldermans, 2017. "Accuracy and Efficiency of Various GMM Inference Techniques in Dynamic Micro Panel Data Models," Econometrics, MDPI, vol. 5(1), pages 1-54, March.
    12. Richard A. Ashley & Christopher F. Parmeter, 2020. "Sensitivity Analysis of an OLS Multiple Regression Inference with Respect to Possible Linear Endogeneity in the Explanatory Variables, for Both Modest and for Extremely Large Samples," Econometrics, MDPI, vol. 8(1), pages 1-24, March.
    13. Ichraf Ouechtati, 2023. "Financial Inclusion, Institutional Quality, and Inequality: an Empirical Analysis," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 14(2), pages 620-644, June.
    14. Manuel Arellano & Stephen Bond, 1991. "Some Tests of Specification for Panel Data: Monte Carlo Evidence and an Application to Employment Equations," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 58(2), pages 277-297.
    15. Gospodinov, Nikolay & Otsu, Taisuke, 2012. "Local GMM estimation of time series models with conditional moment restrictions," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 170(2), pages 476-490.
    16. Blundell, Richard & Bond, Stephen, 1998. "Initial conditions and moment restrictions in dynamic panel data models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 87(1), pages 115-143, August.
    17. Claessens, Stijn & Perotti, Enrico, 2007. "Finance and inequality: Channels and evidence," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 35(4), pages 748-773, December.
    18. Olubunmi Ipinnaiye & Femi Olaniyan, 2023. "An exploratory study of local social innovation initiatives for sustainable poverty reduction in Nigeria," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(4), pages 2222-2239, August.
    19. Windmeijer, Frank, 2005. "A finite sample correction for the variance of linear efficient two-step GMM estimators," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 126(1), pages 25-51, May.
    20. Godfred Anakpo & Zizipho Xhate & Syden Mishi, 2023. "The Policies, Practices, and Challenges of Digital Financial Inclusion for Sustainable Development: The Case of the Developing Economy," FinTech, MDPI, vol. 2(2), pages 1-17, June.
    21. David Roodman, 2009. "How to do xtabond2: An introduction to difference and system GMM in Stata," Stata Journal, StataCorp LLC, vol. 9(1), pages 86-136, March.
    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. Dirk Bezemer & Anna Samarina, 2019. "Debt shift, financial development and income inequality," DNB Working Papers 646, Netherlands Central Bank, Research Department.
    2. Simplice Asongu & Rexon Nting, 2021. "The role of finance in inclusive human development in Africa revisited," Journal of Economic and Administrative Sciences, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 38(2), pages 345-370, February.
    3. Asongu, Simplice & Nwachukwu, Jacinta C., 2015. "Finance and Inclusive Human Development: Evidence from Africa," MPRA Paper 71787, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Kim, Dong-Hyeon & Lin, Shu-Chin, 2023. "Income inequality, inflation and financial development," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 468-487.
    5. Gründler, Klaus & Scheuermeyer, Philipp, 2015. "Income inequality, economic growth, and the effect of redistribution," W.E.P. - Würzburg Economic Papers 95, University of Würzburg, Department of Economics.
    6. Suresh Babu, M. & Bhaskaran, Vandana & Venkatesh, Manasa, 2016. "Does inequality hamper long run growth? Evidence from Emerging Economies," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 99-113.
    7. Bergh, Andreas & Nilsson, Therese, 2010. "Do liberalization and globalization increase income inequality?," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 26(4), pages 488-505, December.
    8. Paolo Coccorese & Roberto Dell'Anno, 2024. "The Role of Banks in Shaping Income Inequality: A Within‐Country Study," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 70(1), pages 129-153, March.
    9. Roberto Dell'Anno & Adalgiso Amendola, 2015. "Social Exclusion and Economic Growth: An Empirical Investigation in European Economies," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 61(2), pages 274-301, June.
    10. Dong-Hyeon Kim & Joyce Hsieh & Shu-Chin Lin, 2021. "Financial liberalization, political institutions, and income inequality," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 60(3), pages 1245-1281, March.
    11. Kunieda, Takuma & Okada, Keisuke & Shibata, Akihisa, 2014. "Finance And Inequality: How Does Globalization Change Their Relationship?," Macroeconomic Dynamics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 18(5), pages 1091-1128, July.
    12. José Carlos Coelho & José Alves, 2021. "How inequality drives growth: an investigation of the transmission channels for OECD countries," Working Papers REM 2021/0194, ISEG - Lisbon School of Economics and Management, REM, Universidade de Lisboa.
    13. Andrew Berg & Jonathan D. Ostry & Charalambos G. Tsangarides & Yorbol Yakhshilikov, 2018. "Redistribution, inequality, and growth: new evidence," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 23(3), pages 259-305, September.
    14. Gustavo A. Marrero & Luis Servén, 2022. "Growth, inequality and poverty: a robust relationship?," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 63(2), pages 725-791, August.
    15. Compaoré, Ali, 2022. "Access-for-all to financial services: Non-resources tax revenue-harnessing opportunities in developing countries," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 236-245.
    16. Péter Benczúr & Virmantas Kvedaras, 2021. "Nonlinear impact of financial deepening on income inequality," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 60(4), pages 1939-1967, April.
    17. Fawaz, Fadi & Rahnamamoghadam, Masha & Valcarcel, Victor, 2014. "A Refinement of the Relationship between Economic Growth and Income Inequality in Developing Countries," MPRA Paper 55268, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    18. Cong Minh Huynh & Nam Hoai Tran, 2023. "Financial development, income inequality, and institutional quality: A multi-dimensional analysis," Cogent Economics & Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 11(2), pages 2242128-224, June.
    19. Marrero,Gustavo Alberto & Rodríguez,Juan Gabriel & Van Der Weide,Roy, 2021. "Does Race and Gender Inequality Impact Income Growth ?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9865, The World Bank.
    20. Alexandra Horobet & Maria-Alexandra Dalu & Iulian Marinescu & Lucian Belascu & Sofia Adriana Dumitrescu & Ioannis Kostakis, 2025. "Financial Inclusion, Technology, and Income Inequality in Europe," The AMFITEATRU ECONOMIC journal, Academy of Economic Studies - Bucharest, Romania, vol. 27(68), pages 1-93, February.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • G10 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - General (includes Measurement and Data)
    • G21 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Banks; Other Depository Institutions; Micro Finance Institutions; Mortgages
    • O16 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Financial Markets; Saving and Capital Investment; Corporate Finance and Governance
    • D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution

    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:vrs:seejeb:v:21:y:2026:i:2:p:37-54:n:1003. 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: Peter Golla (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://reference-global.com .

    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.