IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/mes/emfitr/v57y2021i9p2699-2738.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Financial Inclusion, Financial Literacy and Economically Vulnerable Populations in the Middle East and North Africa

Author

Listed:
  • Angela C. Lyons
  • Josephine Kass-Hanna

Abstract

Using microdata from the 2014 Global Findex, along with macroeconomic indicators, we investigate financial inclusion for the MENA region. We find that economically vulnerable populations are significantly less likely to be financially included. Households living in MENA countries with higher levels of financial literacy are more likely to be engaged in positive savings behaviors and less likely to be borrowing, especially from informal sources. Financial literacy and other macro characteristics, however, do not relate to all individuals equally, especially for those most vulnerable. The findings have important implications for policies in the MENA region, where prolonged conflicts make financial inclusion an even more urgent, yet challenging, goal.

Suggested Citation

  • Angela C. Lyons & Josephine Kass-Hanna, 2021. "Financial Inclusion, Financial Literacy and Economically Vulnerable Populations in the Middle East and North Africa," Emerging Markets Finance and Trade, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 57(9), pages 2699-2738, July.
  • Handle: RePEc:mes:emfitr:v:57:y:2021:i:9:p:2699-2738
    DOI: 10.1080/1540496X.2019.1598370
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/1540496X.2019.1598370
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/1540496X.2019.1598370?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.

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Claude Bernard Lontchi & Baochen Yang & Yunpeng Su, 2022. "The Mediating Effect of Financial Literacy and the Moderating Role of Social Capital in the Relationship between Financial Inclusion and Sustainable Development in Cameroon," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(22), pages 1-24, November.
    2. Kass-Hanna, Josephine & Lyons, Angela C. & Liu, Fan, 2022. "Building financial resilience through financial and digital literacy in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 51(PA).
    3. Gallego-Losada, María-Jesús & Montero-Navarro, Antonio & García-Abajo, Elisa & Gallego-Losada, Rocío, 2023. "Digital financial inclusion. Visualizing the academic literature," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    4. Archillies Kiwanuka & Athenia Bongani Sibindi, 2023. "Insurance Literacy: Significance of Its Dimensions for Insurance Inclusion in Uganda," Economies, MDPI, vol. 11(2), pages 1-17, January.
    5. Onjewu, Adah-Kole Emmanuel & Olan, Femi & Nyuur, Richard Benon-be-isan & Paul, Salima & Nguyen, Ha Thanh Truc, 2023. "The effect of government support on Bureaucracy, COVID-19 resilience and export intensity: Evidence from North Africa," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 156(C).
    6. Lilis Ardini & Mochammad Fahlevi & Mochamad Dandi & Olivia Putri Dahlan & Sahara Putri Dahlan, 2024. "Digital Financial Literacy and Its Impact on Financial Skills and Financial Goals in Indonesia’s Digital Payment Ecosystem," Economic Studies journal, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences - Economic Research Institute, issue 7, pages 181-199.
    7. Foguesatto, Cristian Rogério & Righi, Marcelo Brutti & Müller, Fernanda Maria, 2024. "Is there a dark side to financial inclusion? Understanding the relationship between financial inclusion and market risk," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    8. Murshed, Muntasir & Ahmed, Rizwan & Al-Tal, Raad Mahmoud & Kumpamool, Chamaiporn & Vetchagool, Witchulada & Avarado, Rafael, 2023. "Determinants of financial inclusion in South Asia: The moderating and mediating roles of internal conflict settlement," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    9. Shubham Chavriya & Gagan Deep Sharma & Mandeep Mahendru, 2024. "Financial inclusion as a tool for sustainable macroeconomic growth: An integrative analysis," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 95(2), pages 527-551, June.
    10. Azra Zaimovic & Anes Torlakovic & Almira Arnaut-Berilo & Tarik Zaimovic & Lejla Dedovic & Minela Nuhic Meskovic, 2023. "Mapping Financial Literacy: A Systematic Literature Review of Determinants and Recent Trends," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(12), pages 1-30, June.
    11. 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.
    12. Khanh Duy Pham & Vu Linh Toan Le, 2023. "Nexus between Financial Education, Literacy, and Financial Behavior: Insights from Vietnamese Young Generations," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(20), pages 1-21, October.
    13. Lyons, Angela C. & Kass-Hanna, Josephine & Fava, Ana, 2022. "Fintech development and savings, borrowing, and remittances: A comparative study of emerging economies," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 51(PA).

    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:mes:emfitr:v:57:y:2021:i:9:p:2699-2738. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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/MREE20 .

    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.