IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/h/elg/eechap/19107_15.html
   My bibliography  Save this book chapter

Financial inclusion in high-income countries: gender gap or poverty trap?

In: Handbook of Microfinance, Financial Inclusion and Development

Author

Listed:
  • Anastasia Cozarenco
  • Ariane Szafarz

Abstract

Little is known about the determinants of financial inclusion in high-income countries. Using the Findex dataset, we focus on two regions: The Euro area and North America. In the Euro area, access to financial services can be challenging for women, while in North America, poor households are particularly underserved. This chapter explores potential explanatory factors for the gender and poverty gaps in these two regions. As expected, the region-wise poverty gaps in financial inclusion are aligned with inequality measures. Yet, the factors connected with gender gaps are less intuitive. Our analysis shows that gender gaps in financial inclusion are related more to gendered labor-market characteristics than to institutional gender discrimination. This evidence suggests a link between financial inclusion and the need for consumption smoothing. We therefore speculate that, in high-income countries, gendered financial exclusion is driven more by demand-side factors than by supply-side ones.

Suggested Citation

  • Anastasia Cozarenco & Ariane Szafarz, 2023. "Financial inclusion in high-income countries: gender gap or poverty trap?," Chapters, in: Valentina Hartarska & Robert J. Cull (ed.), Handbook of Microfinance, Financial Inclusion and Development, chapter 15, pages 272-296, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    • Handle: RePEc:elg:eechap:19107_15
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.elgaronline.com/view/edcoll/9781789903874/9781789903874.00024.xml
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Fungáčová, Zuzana & Weill, Laurent, 2015. "Understanding financial inclusion in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 196-206.
    2. Allen, Franklin & Demirguc-Kunt, Asli & Klapper, Leora & Martinez Peria, Maria Soledad, 2016. "The foundations of financial inclusion: Understanding ownership and use of formal accounts," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 27(C), pages 1-30.
    3. Anastasia Cozarenco & Ariane Szafarz, 2018. "Gender Biases in Bank Lending: Lessons from Microcredit in France," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 147(3), pages 631-650, February.
    4. Park, Cyn-Young & Mercado, Rogelio, 2015. "Financial Inclusion, Poverty, and Income Inequality in Developing Asia," ADB Economics Working Paper Series 426, Asian Development Bank.
    5. Valentina Hartarska & Denis Nadolnyak & Roy Mersland, 2014. "Are Women Better Bankers to the Poor? Evidence from Rural Microfinance Institutions," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 96(5), pages 1291-1306.
    6. 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.
    7. Demirguc-Kunt, Asli & Klapper, Leora & Singer, Dorothe, 2013. "Financial inclusion and legal discrimination against women : evidence from developing countries," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6416, The World Bank.
    8. Skinner, Jonathan, 1988. "Risky income, life cycle consumption, and precautionary savings," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 22(2), pages 237-255, September.
    9. Thorsten Beck & Ross Levine (ed.), 2018. "Handbook of Finance and Development," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 16685.
    10. Burietz, Aurore & Oosterlinck, Kim & Szafarz, Ariane, 2017. "Europe vs. the U.S.: A new look at the syndicated loan pricing puzzle," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 160(C), pages 50-53.
    11. Beatriz Armendáriz & Jonathan Morduch, 2010. "The Economics of Microfinance, Second Edition," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 2, volume 1, number 0262014106, April.
    12. Bert D'espallier & Isabelle Guerin & Roy Mersland, 2013. "Focus on Women in Microfinance Institutions," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(5), pages 589-608, May.
    13. Agier, Isabelle & Szafarz, Ariane, 2013. "Microfinance and Gender: Is There a Glass Ceiling on Loan Size?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 165-181.
    14. Périlleux, Anaïs & Szafarz, Ariane, 2015. "Women Leaders and Social Performance: Evidence from Financial Cooperatives in Senegal," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 437-452.
    15. Renaud Bourlès & Anastasia Cozarenco, 2018. "Entrepreneurial motivation and business performance: evidence from a French Microfinance Institution," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 51(4), pages 943-963, December.
    16. Demirguc-Kunt,Asli & Klapper,Leora & Singer,Dorothe & Van Oudheusden,Peter, 2015. "The Global Findex Database 2014 : measuring financial inclusion around the world," Policy Research Working Paper Series 7255, The World Bank.
    17. Jonathan Morduch, 1995. "Income Smoothing and Consumption Smoothing," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 9(3), pages 103-114, Summer.
    18. Germana Corrado & Luisa Corrado, 2015. "The geography of financial inclusion across Europe during the global crisis," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 15(5), pages 1055-1083.
    19. Mark Carey & Greg Nini, 2007. "Is the Corporate Loan Market Globally Integrated? A Pricing Puzzle," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 62(6), pages 2969-3007, December.
    20. Supriya Garikipati & Susan Johnson & Isabelle Guérin & Ariane Szafarz, 2017. "Microfinance and Gender: Issues, Challenges and The Road Ahead," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 53(5), pages 641-648, May.
    21. Johnson, Susan, 2004. "Gender Norms in Financial Markets: Evidence from Kenya," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 32(8), pages 1355-1374, August.
    22. Deaton, Angus, 1992. "Understanding Consumption," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198288244.
    23. Costas Lapavitsas & Jeff Powell, 2013. "Financialisation varied: a comparative analysis of advanced economies," Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 6(3), pages 359-379.
    24. Demirguc-Kunt,Asli & Klapper,Leora & Singer,Dorothe, 2017. "Financial inclusion and inclusive growth : a review of recent empirical evidence," Policy Research Working Paper Series 8040, The World Bank.
    25. Karen E. Dynan, 1993. "How prudent are consumers?," Working Paper Series / Economic Activity Section 135, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    26. Dynan, Karen E, 1993. "How Prudent Are Consumers?," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 101(6), pages 1104-1113, December.
    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. Cozarenco, Anastasia & Szafarz, Ariane, 2020. "The regulation of prosocial lending: Are loan ceilings effective?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 121(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. Kara, Alper & Zhou, Haoyong & Zhou, Yifan, 2021. "Achieving the United Nations' sustainable development goals through financial inclusion: A systematic literature review of access to finance across the globe," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    2. Anaïs Périlleux & Ariane Szafarz, 2022. "Women in the boardroom: a bottom–up approach to the trickle-down effect," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 58(4), pages 1783-1800, April.
    3. Nyarko, Samuel Anokye, 2022. "Gender discrimination and lending to women: The moderating effect of an international founder," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(4).
    4. Ozili, Peterson K, 2020. "Financial inclusion research around the world: a review," MPRA Paper 101809, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Niels Hermes & Marek Hudon, 2018. "Determinants Of The Performance Of Microfinance Institutions: A Systematic Review," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(5), pages 1483-1513, December.
    6. Fall, F.S. & Tchakoute Tchuigoua, H. & Vanhems, A. & Simar, L., 2021. "Gender effect on microfinance social efficiency: A robust nonparametric approach," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 295(2), pages 744-757.
    7. Narda R. Quigley & Pankaj C. Patel, 2022. "Reexamining the gender gap in microlending funding decisions: the role of borrower culture," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 59(4), pages 1661-1685, December.
    8. Moez Bennouri & Anastasia Cozarenco & Samuel Anokye Nyarko, 2024. "Women on Boards and Performance Trade-offs in Social Enterprises: Insights from Microfinance," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 190(1), pages 165-198, February.
    9. Daudi Pascal & Leif Atle Beisland & Roy Mersland, 2016. "The origin of CEOs and its influence on microfinance performance and risk-taking," Working Papers CEB 16-046, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    10. Thereza Balliester Reis, 2022. "Socio‐economic determinants of financial inclusion: An evaluation with a microdata multidimensional index," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 34(3), pages 587-611, April.
    11. Hermes, Cornelis & Hudon, M., 2018. "Determinants of the Performance of Microfinance Institutions: A Systematic Review," Research Report 2018008, University of Groningen, Research Institute SOM (Systems, Organisations and Management).
    12. Arandara,Tisarani Rathnija & Gunasekera,Shanuki, 2020. "Financial Inclusion and Inclusive Growth : What Does It Mean for Sri Lanka?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9204, The World Bank.
    13. Alessandro Federici & Pierluigi Montalbano, 2012. "Macroeconomic volatility, consumption behaviour and welfare: A cross-country analysis," Working Paper Series 3612, Department of Economics, University of Sussex Business School.
    14. Caroline PERRIN & Laurent WEILL, 2021. "No Men, No Cry? How Gender Equality in Access to Credit Enhances Financial Stability," Working Papers of LaRGE Research Center 2021-02, Laboratoire de Recherche en Gestion et Economie (LaRGE), Université de Strasbourg.
    15. Carolina Laureti, 2017. "Why do Poor People Co-hold Debt and Liquid Savings?," Working Papers CEB 17-007, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    16. Fareeha Adil & Abdul Jalil, 2020. "Determining the Financial Inclusion Output of Banking Sector of Pakistan—Supply-Side Analysis," Economies, MDPI, vol. 8(2), pages 1-20, May.
    17. F. S. Fall & H. Tchakoute Tchuigoua & A. Vanhems & L. Simar, 2023. "Investigating the unobserved heterogeneity effect on outreach to women: lessons from microfinance institutions," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 328(2), pages 1365-1386, September.
    18. Tram, Thi Xuan Huong & Lai, Tien Dinh & Nguyen, Thi Truc Huong, 2023. "Constructing a composite financial inclusion index for developing economies," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 257-265.
    19. Sydney Ludvigson & Christina H. Paxson, 2001. "Approximation Bias In Linearized Euler Equations," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 83(2), pages 242-256, May.
    20. US Thathsarani & Jianguo Wei & GRSRC Samaraweera, 2021. "Financial Inclusion’s Role in Economic Growth and Human Capital in South Asia: An Econometric Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(8), pages 1-18, April.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Development Studies; Economics and Finance;

    JEL classification:

    • G21 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Banks; Other Depository Institutions; Micro Finance Institutions; Mortgages
    • O11 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Macroeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • I32 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Measurement and Analysis of Poverty

    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:elg:eechap:19107_15. 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: Darrel McCalla (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.e-elgar.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.