IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/bdi/opques/qef_565_20.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Matthew effect and modern finance: on the nexus between wealth inequality, financial development and financial technology

Author

Listed:
  • Jon Frost

    (Bank for International Settlements and Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance)

  • Leonardo Gambacorta

    (Bank for International Settlements and CEPR)

  • Romina Gambacorta

    (Bank of Italy)

Abstract

This paper analyses the role of financial development and financial technology in inequality in (returns to) wealth. Using micro data from the Survey on Household Income and Wealth (SHIW) conducted by the Bank of Italy over the period 1991-2016, we find that financial development (number of bank branches) and financial technology (use of remote banking) both have a positive association with households’ financial wealth and financial returns. By applying an instrumental variable approach to control for endogeneity, we find that the two variables are, by and large, substitutes. The economic significance of both decreased in the last part of the sample period, as remote banking became more widespread. Finally, other things equal, the effects of financial development and financial technology increase when moving toward the top of the wealth distribution. This is in line with the so-called “Matthew effect” (Merton, 1968), or the capacity of wealthy households to achieve higher returns than other households.

Suggested Citation

  • Jon Frost & Leonardo Gambacorta & Romina Gambacorta, 2020. "The Matthew effect and modern finance: on the nexus between wealth inequality, financial development and financial technology," Questioni di Economia e Finanza (Occasional Papers) 565, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    • Handle: RePEc:bdi:opques:qef_565_20
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.bancaditalia.it/pubblicazioni/qef/2020-0565/QEF_565_20.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Florian Deuflhard & Dimitris Georgarakos & Roman Inderst, 2019. "Financial Literacy and Savings Account Returns," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 17(1), pages 131-164.
    2. Luigi Cannari & Giovanni D'Alessio & Romina Gambacorta, 2007. "Capital gains and wealth distribution in Italy," IFC Bulletins chapters, in: Bank for International Settlements (ed.), Proceedings of the IFC Conference on "Measuring the financial position of the household sector", Basel, 30-31 August 2006 - Volume 2, volume 26, pages 129-156, Bank for International Settlements.
    3. Lessmann, Christian, 2014. "Spatial inequality and development — Is there an inverted-U relationship?," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 35-51.
    4. Arrondel, Luc & Lamarche, Pierre & Savignac, Frédérique, 2019. "Does inequality matter for the consumption-wealth channel? Empirical evidence," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 139-165.
    5. Laurent E. Calvet & John Y. Campbell & Paolo Sodini, 2007. "Down or Out: Assessing the Welfare Costs of Household Investment Mistakes," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 115(5), pages 707-747, October.
    6. Brei, Michael & Ferri, Giovanni & Gambacorta, Leonardo, 2023. "Financial structure and income inequality," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 131(C).
    7. John Y. Campbell & Tarun Ramadorai & Benjamin Ranish, 2019. "Do the Rich Get Richer in the Stock Market? Evidence from India," American Economic Review: Insights, American Economic Association, vol. 1(2), pages 225-240, September.
    8. Gambacorta, Leonardo & Shin, Hyun Song, 2018. "Why bank capital matters for monetary policy," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 35(PB), pages 17-29.
    9. Andreas Fagereng & Luigi Guiso & Davide Malacrino & Luigi Pistaferri, 2020. "Heterogeneity and Persistence in Returns to Wealth," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 88(1), pages 115-170, January.
    10. Guiso, Luigi & Rustichini, Aldo, 2018. "Understanding the size and profitability of firms: The role of a biological factor," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(1), pages 65-85.
    11. Kishan, Ruby P & Opiela, Timothy P, 2000. "Bank Size, Bank Capital, and the Bank Lending Channel," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 32(1), pages 121-141, February.
    12. Amanda Carmignani & Marco Manile & Andrea Orame & Marcello Pagnini, 2020. "Online banking services and branch networks," Questioni di Economia e Finanza (Occasional Papers) 543, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    13. Oded Galor & Omer Moav, 2004. "From Physical to Human Capital Accumulation: Inequality and the Process of Development," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 71(4), pages 1001-1026.
    14. Florence Jaumotte & Subir Lall & Chris Papageorgiou, 2013. "Rising Income Inequality: Technology, or Trade and Financial Globalization?," IMF Economic Review, Palgrave Macmillan;International Monetary Fund, vol. 61(2), pages 271-309, June.
    15. Roger Koenker & Kevin F. Hallock, 2001. "Quantile Regression," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 15(4), pages 143-156, Fall.
    16. Jeremy C. Stein, 1998. "An Adverse-Selection Model of Bank Asset and Liability Management with Implications for the Transmission of Monetary Policy," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 29(3), pages 466-486, Autumn.
    17. Jess Benhabib & Alberto Bisin, 2018. "Skewed Wealth Distributions: Theory and Empirics," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 56(4), pages 1261-1291, December.
    18. Allen, Franklin & Bartiloro, Laura & Gu, Xian & Kowalewski, Oskar, 2018. "Does economic structure determine financial structure?," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 389-409.
    19. Asli Demirgüç-Kunt & Ross Levine, 2009. "Finance and Inequality: Theory and Evidence," Annual Review of Financial Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 1(1), pages 287-318, November.
    20. Jeremy C. Stein & Anil K. Kashyap, 2000. "What Do a Million Observations on Banks Say about the Transmission of Monetary Policy?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 90(3), pages 407-428, June.
    21. Riccardo Bonci & Grazia Marchese & Andrea Neri, 2005. "Financial wealth in the financial accounts and in the Survey of Household Income and Wealth," Temi di discussione (Economic working papers) 565, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    22. Jon Frost, 2020. "The economic forces driving FinTech adoption across countries," Working Papers 663, DNB.
    23. Marianna Brunetti & Costanza Torricelli, 2010. "Population age structure and household portfolio choices in Italy," The European Journal of Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(6), pages 481-502.
    24. Emmanuel Saez & Gabriel Zucman, 2016. "Editor's Choice Wealth Inequality in the United States since 1913: Evidence from Capitalized Income Tax Data," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 131(2), pages 519-578.
    25. Luintel, Kul B. & Khan, Mosahid & Arestis, Philip & Theodoridis, Konstantinos, 2008. "Financial structure and economic growth," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(1), pages 181-200, April.
    26. Raghuram G. Rajan, 2010. "Fault Lines: How Hidden Fractures Still Threaten the World Economy," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 9111.
    27. Andrea Brandolini & Romina Gambacorta & Alfonso Rosolia, 2018. "Inequality amid income stagnation: Italy over the last quarter of a century," Questioni di Economia e Finanza (Occasional Papers) 442, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    28. Hoai-Luu Q. Nguyen, 2019. "Are Credit Markets Still Local? Evidence from Bank Branch Closings," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 11(1), pages 1-32, January.
    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. Brei, Michael & Ferri, Giovanni & Gambacorta, Leonardo, 2023. "Financial structure and income inequality," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 131(C).
    2. Feichtinger, Gustav & Grass, Dieter & Kort, Peter M. & Seidl, Andrea, 2021. "On the Matthew effect in research careers," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 123(C).
    3. Tut, Daniel, 2023. "FinTech and the COVID-19 pandemic: Evidence from electronic payment systems," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).

    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. Frost, Jon & Gambacorta, Leonardo & Gambacorta, Romina, 2022. "On the nexus between wealth inequality, financial development and financial technology," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 202(C), pages 429-451.
    2. Brei, Michael & Ferri, Giovanni & Gambacorta, Leonardo, 2023. "Financial structure and income inequality," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 131(C).
    3. Andreas Fagereng & Luigi Guiso & Davide Malacrino & Luigi Pistaferri, 2020. "Heterogeneity and Persistence in Returns to Wealth," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 88(1), pages 115-170, January.
    4. Manthos D. Delis & Fulvia Fringuellotti & Steven Ongena, 2020. "Credit, Income, and Income Inequality," Staff Reports 929, Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
    5. Dirk Bezemer & Anna Samarina, 2019. "Debt shift, financial development and income inequality," DNB Working Papers 646, Netherlands Central Bank, Research Department.
    6. Altavilla, Carlo & Laeven, Luc & Peydró, José-Luis, 2020. "Monetary and Macroprudential Policy Complementarities: evidence from European credit registers," CEPR Discussion Papers 15539, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    7. Laurens Cherchye & Bram De Rock & Dieter Saelens, 2024. "Nonparametric analysis of financial portfolio performance," Working Papers ECARES 2024-08, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    8. repec:zbw:bofrdp:2017_025 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Burietz, Aurore & Picault, Matthieu, 2023. "To lend or not to lend? The ECB as the ‘intermediary of last resort’," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 122(C).
    10. Dan Cao & Wenlan Luo, 2017. "Persistent Heterogeneous Returns and Top End Wealth Inequality," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 26, pages 301-326, October.
    11. Takáts, Előd & Temesvary, Judit, 2020. "The currency dimension of the bank lending channel in international monetary transmission," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 125(C).
    12. John Y. Campbell & Tarun Ramadorai & Benjamin Ranish, 2019. "Do the Rich Get Richer in the Stock Market? Evidence from India," American Economic Review: Insights, American Economic Association, vol. 1(2), pages 225-240, September.
    13. Erauskin, Iñaki & Turnovsky, Stephen J., 2019. "International financial integration and income inequality in a stochastically growing economy," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 119(C), pages 55-74.
    14. Rodrigo Barbone Gonzalez, 2019. "Monetary policy surprises and employment: evidence from matched bank-firm loan data on the bank lending-channel," BIS Working Papers 799, Bank for International Settlements.
    15. van Holle, Frederiek, 2017. "Essays in empirical finance and monetary policy," Other publications TiSEM 30d11a4b-7bc9-4c81-ad24-5, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    16. Knüpfer, Samuli & Rantapuska, Elias & Sarvimäki, Matti, 2017. "Social interaction in the family: Evidence from investors’ security holdings," Research Discussion Papers 25/2017, Bank of Finland.
    17. Gao, Pengjie & Hu, Allen & Kelly, Peter & Peng, Cameron & Zhu, Ning, 2020. "Exploited by complexity," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 118867, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    18. Christian Bittner & Diana Bonfim & Florian Heider & Farzad Saidi & Glenn Schepens & Carla Soares, 2022. "The Augmented Bank Balance-Sheet Channel of Monetary Policy," ECONtribute Discussion Papers Series 149, University of Bonn and University of Cologne, Germany.
    19. Oliver Denk & Boris Cournède, 2015. "Finance and income inequality in OECD countries," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 1224, OECD Publishing.
    20. 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.
    21. Moritz Kuhn & Moritz Schularick & Ulrike I. Steins, 2020. "Income and Wealth Inequality in America, 1949–2016," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 128(9), pages 3469-3519.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    inequality; financial development; banks; financial technology; fintech;
    All these 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
    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration
    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:bdi:opques:qef_565_20. 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/bdigvit.html .

    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.