IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/ijfiec/v29y2024i1p832-848.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Financial inclusion and economic growth: What roles do institutions and financial regulation play?

Author

Listed:
  • Isaac Ofoeda
  • Lordina Amoah
  • Ebenezer Bugri Anarfo
  • Joshua Yindenaba Abor

Abstract

The extant literature indicates that financial inclusion has a direct influence on economic growth. This has been examined by previous studies by analysing the link between financial inclusion and economic growth. This study uses the two‐step system GMM approach to investigate the moderating role of financial regulation and quality of institutions on the linkage between economic growth and financial inclusion in Africa, using balanced panel data of 52 African countries spanning 2002–2019. The findings reveal a number of things; (i) financial inclusion, financial regulation, and all proxies of institutional quality exert strong and significant effects on economic growth; (ii) institutional quality enhances the impact of financial inclusion on economic growth; iii. Financial regulation dampens the effect of financial inclusion on economic growth. Based on these findings, we recommend the following; (i) central, local governments, and policymakers should formulate public policy that promotes inclusive finance. Such policies should aim at removing barriers and constraints such as excessive customer identification requirements that hinder people from gaining access to finance; (ii) central governments and policymakers in Africa should refine policy that promotes the involvement of the citizenry in governance processes, promote accountability of public institutions, ensure effective governance systems, controls corruption, promote rule of law, and political stability and ensure quality legal and regulatory regimes; (iii) African central governments should fine‐tune policy aimed at strengthening institutions and the regulatory framework. By implication, strong, independent, and quality institutions coupled with sound financial regulatory framework is required to spur the growth of African countries.

Suggested Citation

  • Isaac Ofoeda & Lordina Amoah & Ebenezer Bugri Anarfo & Joshua Yindenaba Abor, 2024. "Financial inclusion and economic growth: What roles do institutions and financial regulation play?," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(1), pages 832-848, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:ijfiec:v:29:y:2024:i:1:p:832-848
    DOI: 10.1002/ijfe.2709
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/ijfe.2709
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/ijfe.2709?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. Simplice A. Asongu & Nicholas M. Odhiambo, 2018. "ICT, Financial Access and Gender Inclusion in the Formal Economic Sector: Evidence from Africa," The African Finance Journal, Africagrowth Institute, vol. 20(2), pages 45-65.
    2. Gameli Adika, 2020. "Economic growth dynamics between resource‐rich and resource‐poor countries in sub‐Saharan Africa: The role of politics and institutions," African Development Review, African Development Bank, vol. 32(3), pages 303-315, September.
    3. Rosmah Nizam & Zulkefly Abdul Karim & Aisyah Abdul Rahman & Tamat Sarmidi, 2020. "Financial inclusiveness and economic growth: new evidence using a threshold regression analysis," Economic Research-Ekonomska Istraživanja, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 33(1), pages 1465-1484, January.
    4. Stephen Bond, 2002. "Dynamic panel data models: a guide to microdata methods and practice," CeMMAP working papers 09/02, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    5. Slesman, Ly & Baharumshah, Ahmad Zubaidi & Ra'ees, Wahabuddin, 2015. "Institutional infrastructure and economic growth in member countries of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC)," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 214-226.
    6. Joshua Yindenaba Abor & Mohammed Amidu & Haruna Issahaku, 2018. "Mobile Telephony, Financial Inclusion and Inclusive Growth," Journal of African Business, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(3), pages 430-453, July.
    7. David Roodman, 2009. "A Note on the Theme of Too Many Instruments," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 71(1), pages 135-158, February.
    8. Sumit Agarwal, 2010. "Distance and Private Information in Lending," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 23(7), pages 2757-2788, July.
    9. José Aixalá & Gema Fabro, 2008. "Does The Impact Of Institutional Quality On Economic Growth Depend On Initial Income Level?," Economic Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(3), pages 45-49, September.
    10. Stephen Bond, 2002. "Dynamic panel data models: a guide to microdata methods and practice," CeMMAP working papers CWP09/02, Centre for Microdata Methods and Practice, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    11. Oyinlola, Mutiu A. & Adedeji, Abdulfatai A. & Bolarinwa, Modupe O. & Olabisi, Nafisat, 2020. "Governance, domestic resource mobilization, and inclusive growth in sub-Saharan Africa," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 68-88.
    12. Houssem Rachdi & Sami Mensi, 2013. "Does institutions quality matter for financial development and economic growth nexus? Another look at the evidence from MENA countries," International Journal of Financial Economics, Research Academy of Social Sciences, vol. 1(1), pages 1-15.
    13. Panicos Demetriades & Siong Hook Law, 2006. "Finance, institutions and economic development," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 11(3), pages 245-260.
    14. Silberberger, Magdalene & Königer, Jens, 2016. "Regulation, trade and economic growth," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 40(2), pages 308-322.
    15. Ali M. Kutan & Nahla Samargandi & Kazi Sohag, 2017. "Does Institutional Quality Matter for Financial Development and Growth? Further Evidence from MENA Countries," Australian Economic Papers, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 56(3), pages 228-248, September.
    16. Walid Benayed & Nouha Bougharriou & Foued Badr Gabsi, 2020. "The threshold effect of political institutions on the finance-growth nexus: Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 40(3), pages 2484-2493.
    17. Mr. Kangni R Kpodar & Mihasonirina Andrianaivo, 2011. "ICT, Financial Inclusion, and Growth: Evidence from African Countries," IMF Working Papers 2011/073, International Monetary Fund.
    18. Ornella Tarola, 2010. "Public Utilities: Privatization without Regulation," Czech Economic Review, Charles University Prague, Faculty of Social Sciences, Institute of Economic Studies, vol. 4(1), pages 062-078, March.
    19. Jalilian, Hossein & Kirkpatrick, Colin & Parker, David, 2007. "The Impact of Regulation on Economic Growth in Developing Countries: A Cross-Country Analysis," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 35(1), pages 87-103, January.
    20. 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.
    21. Olufemi A. Aluko & Muazu Ibrahim, 2020. "Institutions and the financial development–economic growth nexus in sub‐Saharan Africa," Economic Notes, Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA, vol. 49(3), September.
    22. George Okello Candiya Bongomin & Joseph M. Ntayi & John C. Munene & Charles Akol Malinga, 2018. "Institutions and Financial Inclusion in Rural Uganda: the Mediating Role of Social Capital," Journal of African Business, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(2), pages 244-261, April.
    23. Arellano, Manuel & Bover, Olympia, 1995. "Another look at the instrumental variable estimation of error-components models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 68(1), pages 29-51, July.
    24. Hazwan Haini, 2020. "Examining the relationship between finance, institutions and economic growth: evidence from the ASEAN economies," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 53(4), pages 519-542, November.
    25. Mahmoud Arayssi & Ali Fakih & Mohamad Kassem, 2019. "Government and Financial Institutional Determinants of Development in MENA Countries," Emerging Markets Finance and Trade, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 55(11), pages 2473-2496, September.
    26. Stephen R. Bond, 2002. "Dynamic panel data models: a guide to micro data methods and practice," Portuguese Economic Journal, Springer;Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestao, vol. 1(2), pages 141-162, August.
    27. 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.
    28. Odongo Kodongo, 2018. "Financial Regulations, Financial Literacy, and Financial Inclusion: Insights from Kenya," Emerging Markets Finance and Trade, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 54(12), pages 2851-2873, September.
    29. Adams, Samuel & Opoku, Eric Evans Osei, 2015. "Foreign direct investment, regulations and growth in sub-Saharan Africa," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 48-56.
    30. Sanjaya Kumar Lenka & Ruchi Sharma, 2017. "Does Financial Inclusion Spur Economic Growth in India?," Journal of Developing Areas, Tennessee State University, College of Business, vol. 51(3), pages 215-228, July-Sept.
    31. Samargandi, Nahla & Fidrmuc, Jan & Ghosh, Sugata, 2015. "Is the Relationship Between Financial Development and Economic Growth Monotonic? Evidence from a Sample of Middle-Income Countries," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 66-81.
    32. Abiola A. Babajide & Folasade B. Adegboye & Alexander E. Omankhanlen, 2015. "Financial Inclusion and Economic Growth in Nigeria," International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues, Econjournals, vol. 5(3), pages 629-637.
    33. Robert H. Bates & Steven A. Block & Ghada Fayad & Anke Hoeffler, 2013. "The New Institutionalism and Africa," Journal of African Economies, Centre for the Study of African Economies, vol. 22(4), pages 499-522, August.
    34. repec:oup:jafrec:v:22:y:2013:i:4:p:-522 is not listed on IDEAS
    35. Clement Olalekan Olaniyi & Sunday Idowu Oladeji, 2021. "Moderating the effect of institutional quality on the finance–growth nexus: insights from West African countries," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 54(1), pages 43-74, February.
    36. Dinabandhu Sethi & Debashis Acharya, 2018. "Financial inclusion and economic growth linkage: some cross country evidence," Journal of Financial Economic Policy, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 10(3), pages 369-385, June.
    37. Bichaka Fayissa & Christian Nsiah, 2013. "The impact of governance on economic growth in Africa," Journal of Developing Areas, Tennessee State University, College of Business, vol. 47(1), pages 91-108, January-J.
    38. 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.
    39. Huang, Ruixian & Kale, Seenaiah & Paramati, Sudharshan Reddy & Taghizadeh-Hesary, Farhad, 2021. "The nexus between financial inclusion and economic development: Comparison of old and new EU member countries," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 1-15.
    40. Takeshi Inoue & Shigeyuki Hamori, 2016. "Financial Access and Economic Growth: Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa," Emerging Markets Finance and Trade, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 52(3), pages 743-753, March.
    41. World Bank, 2008. "Finance for All? Policies and Pitfalls in Expanding Access," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 6905, December.
    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. Clement Olalekan Olaniyi, 2022. "On the transmission mechanisms in the finance–growth nexus in Southern African countries: Does institution matter?," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 55(1), pages 153-191, February.
    2. Elya Nabila Abdul Bahri & Abu Hassan Shaari Md Nor & Tamat Sarmidi & Nor Hakimah Haji Mohd Nor, 2019. "The Role of Financial Development in the Relationship Between Foreign Direct Investment and Economic Growth: A Nonlinear Approach," Review of Pacific Basin Financial Markets and Policies (RPBFMP), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 22(02), pages 1-32, June.
    3. Rafiou Raphaël Bétila, 2021. "The impact of Ease of Doing Business on economic growth: a dynamic panel analysis for African countries," SN Business & Economics, Springer, vol. 1(10), pages 1-34, October.
    4. Imen Mohamed Sghaier, 2022. "The Role of Institutional Quality in Finance-Growth Nexus: Evidence from North African Countries," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 13(4), pages 3472-3491, December.
    5. Gnangnon, Sèna Kimm, 2023. "Duration of membership in the world trade organization and investment-oriented remittances inflows," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 258-277.
    6. 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.
    7. Gnangnon, Sèna Kimm, 2021. "Effect of the Utilization of Non-Reciprocal Trade Preferences offered by the QUAD on Economic Growth in Beneficiary Countries," EconStor Preprints 242848, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    8. Ismail M. Cole, 2023. "The political economy triangle of government spending, interest‐group influence, and income inequality: Evidence and implications from the US states," Economics and Politics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(3), pages 1122-1176, November.
    9. Anwar Al-Gasaymeh & Miral R. Samarah, 2023. "Does Country Risk Affect Banking Efficiency: Empirical Evidence from Turkey and Selected Countries from the European Union," Global Business Review, International Management Institute, vol. 24(6), pages 1401-1417, December.
    10. Jamil, Abd Rahim Md. & Law, Siong Hook & Mohamad Khair-Afham, M.S. & Trinugroho, Irwan, 2023. "Financial inclusion and economic uncertainty in developing countries: The role of digitalisation," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 786-806.
    11. Gnangnon, Sèna Kimm, 2023. "Effect of the Utilization of Non-Reciprocal Trade Preferences on Trade Policy in Beneficiary Countries," EconStor Preprints 279825, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    12. Raja Almarzoqi & Sami Ben Naceur & Akshay Kotak, 2015. "What Matters for Financial Development and Stability?," IMF Working Papers 2015/173, International Monetary Fund.
    13. Abdul Bahri, Elya Nabila & Mohd Nor, Abu Hassan Shaari & Sarmidi, Tamat & Haji Mohd Nor, Nor Hakimah, 2018. "Nonlinear Relationship between Financial Development and Economic Growth: Evidence from Post Global Financial Crisis Panel Data," Jurnal Ekonomi Malaysia, Faculty of Economics and Business, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, vol. 52(1), pages 15-30.
    14. Brahim Gaies & Mahmoud‐Sami Nabi, 2021. "Banking crises and economic growth in developing countries: Why privileging foreign direct investment over external debt?," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 73(4), pages 736-761, October.
    15. Falavigna, Greta & Ippoliti, Roberto, 2023. "SMEs’ behavior under financial constraints: An empirical investigation on the legal environment and the substitution effect with tax arrears," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    16. Juergen Bitzer & Erkan Goeren, 2018. "Foreign Aid and Subnational Development: A Grid Cell Analysis," Working Papers V-407-18, University of Oldenburg, Department of Economics, revised Mar 2018.
    17. Davide Consoli & Francesco Vona & Francesco Rentocchini, 2016. "That was then, this is now: skills and routinization in the 2000s," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 25(5), pages 847-866.
    18. Vinayagathasan, Thanabalasingam, 2013. "Inflation and economic growth: A dynamic panel threshold analysis for Asian economies," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 26(C), pages 31-41.
    19. Gnangnon, Sèna Kimm, 2022. "Duration of WTO Membership and Investment-Oriented Remittances Flows," EconStor Preprints 251274, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    20. Mohamed Mnasri & Georges Dionne & Jean-Pierre Gueyie, 2013. "The Maturity Structure of Corporate Hedging: the Case of the U.S. Oil and Gas Industry," Cahiers de recherche 1337, CIRPEE.

    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:wly:ijfiec:v:29:y:2024:i:1:p:832-848. 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.interscience.wiley.com/jpages/1076-9307/ .

    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.