IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/oup/ooecxx/v1y2022ip1-29..html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Empty digital wallets: new technologies and old inequalities in digital financial services among women

Author

Listed:
  • Laura Caron

Abstract

Digital financialservices (DFSs) may lower certain costs of accessing finance, but they bring new costs, including difficulties accessing mobile networks. Using the Demographic and Health Surveys and several geocoded databases in Nepal, the Philippines, Senegal and Tanzania, this paper studies the distribution of digital finance use among women and its enabling infrastructure, including mobile phone towers, compared to traditional finance. The potential of digital technologies to lessen inequalities depends on availability and access, particularly for women who may already face gaps in financial inclusion. Mobile phone towers are more unequally distributed than traditional banks, though mobile phone use is near universal. However, digital finance use is still low and almost as unequal as traditional finance, driven by the same inequalities. Wealth, education and location appear to be strongly associated with access to DFSs. The results suggest that old inequalities may constrain the promise of new digital technologies.

Suggested Citation

  • Laura Caron, 2022. "Empty digital wallets: new technologies and old inequalities in digital financial services among women," Oxford Open Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 1, pages 1-29.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:ooecxx:v:1:y:2022:i::p:1-29.
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/ooec/odac001
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jean N. Lee & Jonathan Morduch & Saravana Ravindran & Abu Shonchoy & Hassan Zaman, 2021. "Poverty and Migration in the Digital Age: Experimental Evidence on Mobile Banking in Bangladesh," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 13(1), pages 38-71, January.
    2. Thanee Chaiwat, 2016. "Night Lights, Economic Growth, and Spatial Inequality of Thailand," PIER Discussion Papers 26, Puey Ungphakorn Institute for Economic Research.
    3. Saibal Ghosh, 2020. "Financial Inclusion in India: Does Distance Matter?," South Asia Economic Journal, Institute of Policy Studies of Sri Lanka, vol. 21(2), pages 216-238, September.
    4. Nora Lustig & Carola Pessino & George Gray Molina & Wilson Jimenez & Veronica Paz & Ernesto Yanez & Claudiney Pereira & Sean Higgins & John Scott & Miguel Jaramillo, 2011. "Fiscal Policy and Income Redistribution in Latin America: Challenging the Conventional Wisdom," Working Papers 1124, Tulane University, Department of Economics.
    5. Abhijit Banerjee & Emily Breza & Esther Duflo & Cynthia Kinnan, 2019. "Can Microfinance Unlock a Poverty Trap for Some Entrepreneurs?," Discussion Papers Series, Department of Economics, Tufts University 0832, Department of Economics, Tufts University.
    6. Munyegera, Ggombe Kasim & Matsumoto, Tomoya, 2016. "Mobile Money, Remittances, and Household Welfare: Panel Evidence from Rural Uganda," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 127-137.
    7. Anthony Mveyange, 2015. "Night lights and regional income inequality in Africa," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2015-085, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    8. 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.
    9. 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.
    10. World Bank, 2021. "Rwanda Economic Update, June 2021," World Bank Publications - Reports 35970, The World Bank Group.
    11. World Bank, 2021. "Rwanda Economic Update, January 2021," World Bank Publications - Reports 35111, The World Bank Group.
    12. Ghosh, Saibal & Vinod, D., 2017. "What Constrains Financial Inclusion for Women? Evidence from Indian Micro data," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 60-81.
    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. Suhrab, Muhammad & Chen, Pinglu & Ullah, Atta, 2024. "Digital financial inclusion and income inequality nexus: Can technology innovation and infrastructure development help in achieving sustainable development goals?," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 76(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. Grohmann, Antonia & Klühs, Theres & Menkhoff, Lukas, 2018. "Does financial literacy improve financial inclusion? Cross country evidence," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 84-96.
    2. 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.
    3. N'dri, Lasme Mathieu & Kakinaka, Makoto, 2020. "Financial inclusion, mobile money, and individual welfare: The case of Burkina Faso," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(3).
    4. Ongo Nkoa, Bruno Emmanuel & Song, Jacques Simon, 2020. "Does institutional quality affect financial inclusion in Africa? A panel data analysis," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 44(4).
    5. Johnen, Constantin & Musshoff, Oliver & Parlasca, Martin C., 2022. "Mobile Money Adoption in Kenya: The Role of Mobile Money Agents," 2022 Annual Meeting, July 31-August 2, Anaheim, California 322294, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    6. Renata Baborska & Emilio Hernandez & Emiliano Magrini & Cristian Morales-Opazo, 2020. "The impact of financial inclusion on rural food security experience: A perspective from low-and middle-income countries," Review of Development Finance Journal, Chartered Institute of Development Finance, vol. 10(2), pages 1-18.
    7. 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).
    8. Leora Klapper & Dorothe Singer, 2018. "The role of demand-side data - measuring financial inclusion from the perspective of users of financial services," IFC Bulletins chapters, in: Bank for International Settlements (ed.), The role of data in supporting financial inclusion policy, volume 47, Bank for International Settlements.
    9. Steinert, Janina I. & Zenker, Juliane & Filipiak, Ute & Movsisyan, Ani & Cluver, Lucie D. & Shenderovich, Yulia, 2018. "Do saving promotion interventions increase household savings, consumption, and investments in Sub-Saharan Africa? A systematic review and meta-analysis," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 238-256.
    10. Daud, Siti Nurazira Mohd & Ahmad, Abd Halim, 2023. "Financial inclusion, economic growth and the role of digital technology," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 53(C).
    11. Ablam Estel Apeti & Jean-Louis Combes & Eyah Denise Edoh, 2023. "Entrepreneurship in developing countries: can mobile money play a role?," Working Papers hal-04081304, HAL.
    12. Chen, S. & Doerr, S. & Frost, J. & Gambacorta, L. & Shin, H.S., 2023. "The fintech gender gap," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    13. Singh, Vinay Kumar & Ghosh, Sajal, 2021. "Financial inclusion and economic growth in India amid demonetization: A case study based on panel cointegration and causality," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 674-693.
    14. Zelda Marquardt & Yuichi Ikeda, 2022. "Network Analysis of the Gender Gap in International Remittances by Migrants," The Review of Socionetwork Strategies, Springer, vol. 16(2), pages 337-376, October.
    15. Wang, Rui & Luo, Hang (Robin), 2022. "How does financial inclusion affect bank stability in emerging economies?," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 51(PA).
    16. Apeti, Ablam Estel & Edoh, Eyah Denise, 2023. "Tax revenue and mobile money in developing countries," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    17. 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.
    18. Emmanuel Kwablah Apiors & Aya Suzuki, 2018. "Mobile Money, Individuals’ Payments, Remittances, and Investments: Evidence from the Ashanti Region, Ghana," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(5), pages 1-26, May.
    19. Gupta, Suraksha & Kanungo, Rama Prasad, 2022. "Financial inclusion through digitalisation: Economic viability for the bottom of the pyramid (BOP) segment," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 148(C), pages 262-276.
    20. Eduardo Polloni-Silva & Naijela da Costa & Herick Fernando Moralles & Mario Sacomano Neto, 2021. "Does Financial Inclusion Diminish Poverty and Inequality? A Panel Data Analysis for Latin American Countries," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 158(3), pages 889-925, December.

    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:oup:ooecxx:v:1:y:2022:i::p:1-29.. 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: Oxford University Press (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://academic.oup.com/ooec .

    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.