IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ntu/ntugeo/vol9-iss1-82-90.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Financial Inclusion Disparities in the European Union

Author

Listed:
  • Cristina Zeldea

    (Institute for World Economy, Romanian Academy)

Abstract

The European Union is a leader when it comes to various inclusion indicators. At first glance, this would suggest that the EU enjoys a high level of financial inclusion. The analysis we performed reveals that the EU-level averages often hide extremes. While Western European countries have a very high level of financial inclusion, when we look at the countries in Eastern Europe, we can even talk about a financial exclusion of the population. The study relies on three sets of indicators, related to the use, geographical access, and digitalization of financial services. On a positive note, inclusion indicators have improved over the analyzed period. However, this improvement took place at different paces for the Member States and, as a result, disparities not only persisted, but even deepened in many cases.

Suggested Citation

  • Cristina Zeldea, 2021. "Financial Inclusion Disparities in the European Union," Global Economic Observer, "Nicolae Titulescu" University of Bucharest, Faculty of Economic Sciences;Institute for World Economy of the Romanian Academy, vol. 9(1), pages 82-90, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:ntu:ntugeo:vol9-iss1-82-90
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.globeco.ro/wp-content/uploads/vol/split/vol_9_no_1/geo_2021_vol9_no1_art_009.pdf
    File Function: First version, 2021
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Carin van der Cruijsen & Jakob de Haan & Ria Roerink, 2023. "Trust in financial institutions: A survey," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(4), pages 1214-1254, September.
    2. World Bank, "undated". "Europe and Central Asia Economic Update, Fall 2019," World Bank Publications - Reports 32481, The World Bank Group.
    3. World Bank, "undated". "Europe and Central Asia Economic Update, Spring 2019," World Bank Publications - Reports 31501, The World Bank Group.
    4. Demirguc-Kunt, Asli & Klapper, Leora, 2012. "Measuring financial inclusion : the Global Findex Database," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6025, The World Bank.
    5. Xu, Xiaoyan, 2020. "Trust and financial inclusion: A cross-country study," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 35(C).
    6. Esselink, Henk & Gijsel, Lola Hernandez-van, 2017. "The use of cash by households in the euro area," Occasional Paper Series 201, European Central Bank.
    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. Mirela Clementina Panait & Simona Andreea Apostu & Iza Gigauri & Maria Giovanna Confetto & Maria Palazzo, 2024. "Defeating the Dark Sides of FinTech: A Regression-Based Analysis of Digitalization’s Role in Fostering Consumers’ Financial Inclusion in Central and Eastern Europe," Risks, MDPI, vol. 12(11), pages 1-18, November.

    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. Fanyu Chen & Zi Wen Vivien Wong & Siong Hook Law, 2024. "Brain drain: what is the role of institutions?," Economia e Politica Industriale: Journal of Industrial and Business Economics, Springer;Associazione Amici di Economia e Politica Industriale, vol. 51(3), pages 605-628, September.
    2. Ubeda, Fernando & Mendez, Alvaro & Forcadell, Francisco Javier & López, Belén, 2024. "How socially sustainable multinational banks promote financial inclusion in developing countries," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    3. Gamze Ozturk Danisman & Amine Tarazi, 2020. "Financial inclusion and bank stability: evidence from Europe," The European Journal of Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 26(18), pages 1842-1855, December.
    4. World Bank, 2022. "Global Economic Prospects, June 2022," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 37224.
    5. Sha’ban, Mais & Ayadi, Rym & Forouheshfar, Yeganeh & Challita, Sandra & Sandri, Serena, 2024. "Digital and traditional financial inclusion: Trends and drivers," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 72(PB).
    6. Giorgio Nuzzo & Stefano Piermattei, 2020. "Discussing Measures of Financial Inclusion for the Main Euro Area Countries," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 148(3), pages 765-786, April.
    7. Cuong, Ly Kim & Hau, Hoang Tran, 2021. "Does innovation promote access to informal loans? Evidence from a transitional economy," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 40(C).
    8. Michaud, Amanda & Rothert, Jacek, 2018. "Redistributive fiscal policies and business cycles in emerging economies," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 123-133.
    9. Ngasuko, Tri Achya, 2018. "Peningkatan Keuangan Inklusif Melalui Program Keluarga Harapan [Increasing Financial Inclusion Through Indonesian Conditional Cash Transfer Programme (Program Keluarga Harapan)]," MPRA Paper 98335, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Nanda, Kajole, 2019. "Dynamics between Bank-led Financial Inclusion and Economic Growth in Emerging Economies: The Case of India," International Journal of Development and Conflict, Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics, vol. 9(1), pages 95-121.
    11. International Monetary Fund, 2014. "Burundi: Staff Report for the 2014 Article IV Consultation, Fifth Review Under the Three-Year Arrangement Under the Extended Credit Facility and Request for Modification of Performance Criteria," IMF Staff Country Reports 2014/293, International Monetary Fund.
    12. World Bank & International Finance Corporation, 2014. "The Fruit of Her Labor : Promoting Gender-Equitable Agribusiness in Papua New Guinea," World Bank Publications - Reports 21085, The World Bank Group.
    13. Richard M. Kiai & Stephen I. Ng’ang’a & David N. Kiragu & Josphat K. Kinyanjui, 2016. "The Effect of Business Environment on Investment among Financially Included Youth in Kenya," International Journal of Academic Research in Accounting, Finance and Management Sciences, Human Resource Management Academic Research Society, International Journal of Academic Research in Accounting, Finance and Management Sciences, vol. 6(4), pages 109-121, October.
    14. Fascione, Luisa & Oosterhek, Koen & Scheubel, Beatrice & Stracca, Livio & Wildmann, Nadya, 2024. "Keep calm, but watch the outliers: deposit flows in recent crisis episodes and beyond," Occasional Paper Series 361, European Central Bank.
    15. Simplice A. Asongu & Nicholas M. Odhiambo, 2022. "The of role economic growth in modulating mobile connectivity dynamics for financial inclusion in developing countries," Working Papers of the African Governance and Development Institute. 22/013, African Governance and Development Institute..
    16. Suárez, Sandra L., 2016. "Poor people׳s money: The politics of mobile money in Mexico and Kenya," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 40(10), pages 945-955.
    17. László Kajdi & István Nemecskó, 2020. "Regional Features of Card Payments in Hungary," Financial and Economic Review, Magyar Nemzeti Bank (Central Bank of Hungary), vol. 19(1), pages 65-89.
    18. Fujiki, Hiroshi, 2020. "Cash demand and financial literacy: A case study using Japanese survey data," Japan and the World Economy, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    19. Peter J. Morgan & Victor Pontines, 2018. "Financial Stability And Financial Inclusion: The Case Of Sme Lending," The Singapore Economic Review (SER), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 63(01), pages 111-124, March.
    20. Karthik Balasubramanian & David F. Drake, 2015. "Service Quality, Inventory and Competition: An Empirical Analysis of Mobile Money Agents in Africa," Harvard Business School Working Papers 15-059, Harvard Business School, revised Oct 2015.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    financial inclusion; financial integration; disparities; European Union; financial services access; digitalization;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G20 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - General
    • G21 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Banks; Other Depository Institutions; Micro Finance Institutions; Mortgages
    • G50 - Financial Economics - - Household Finance - - - General
    • G53 - Financial Economics - - Household Finance - - - Financial Literacy

    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:ntu:ntugeo:vol9-iss1-82-90. 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: Stefan Ciucu The email address of this maintainer does not seem to be valid anymore. Please ask Stefan Ciucu to update the entry or send us the correct address (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/feuntro.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.