IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/imf/imfwpa/2021-167.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Is Digital Financial Inclusion Unlocking Growth?

Author

Listed:
  • Purva Khera
  • Miss Stephanie Y Ng
  • Ms. Sumiko Ogawa
  • Ms. Ratna Sahay

Abstract

Digital financial services have been a key driver of financial inclusion in recent years. While there is evidence that financial inclusion through traditional services has a positive impact on economic growth, do the same results carry over for digital financial inclusion? What drives digital financial inclusion? Why does it advance more in some countries but not in others? Using new indices of financial inclusion developed in Khera et. al. (2021), this paper addresses these questions for 52 developing countries. Using cross-sectional instrument variable procedure, we find that the exogenous component of digital financial inclusion is positively associated with growth in GDP per capita during 2011-2018, which suggests that digital financial inclusion can accelerate economic growth. Fractional logit and random effects empirical estimation identifies access to infrastructure, financial and digital literacy, and quality of institutions as key drivers of digital financial inclusion. These findings are then used to help inform policy recommendations in areas related to the digitization of financial services to promote financial inclusion.

Suggested Citation

  • Purva Khera & Miss Stephanie Y Ng & Ms. Sumiko Ogawa & Ms. Ratna Sahay, 2021. "Is Digital Financial Inclusion Unlocking Growth?," IMF Working Papers 2021/167, International Monetary Fund.
    • Handle: RePEc:imf:imfwpa:2021/167
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/cat/longres.aspx?sk=460738
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Kouladoum, Jean-Claude & Wirajing, Muhamadu Awal Kindzeka & Nchofoung, Tii N., 2022. "Digital technologies and financial inclusion in Sub-Saharan Africa," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(9).
    2. Ozili, Peterson K, 2022. "Financial inclusion washing," MPRA Paper 114337, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Peterson K. Ozili, 2024. "Natural rate of financial inclusion: a global database," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 57(6), pages 1-63, December.
    4. Huimin Li, 2023. "Impact of Digital Inclusive Finance on Household Formal Credit: Evidence from China Household Finance Survey," Journal of Applied Finance & Banking, SCIENPRESS Ltd, vol. 13(6), pages 1-9.
    5. Kropp, Per & Theuer, Stefan & Fritzsche, Birgit, 2021. "Digitalisierung schreitet voran - Neuschätzung der Substituierbarkeitspotenziale in Sachsen-Anhalt 2019," IAB-Regional. Berichte und Analysen aus dem Regionalen Forschungsnetz. IAB Sachsen-Anhalt-Thüringen 202103, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany].
    6. Apeti, Ablam Estel & Edoh, Eyah Denise, 2023. "Tax revenue and mobile money in developing countries," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    7. Purva Khera & Stephanie Ng & Sumiko Ogawa & Ratna Sahay, 2022. "Measuring Digital Financial Inclusion in Emerging Market and Developing Economies: A New Index," Asian Economic Policy Review, Japan Center for Economic Research, vol. 17(2), pages 213-230, July.
    8. Bakhsh, Satar & Zhang, Wei & Ali, Kishwar & Anas, Muhammad, 2024. "Transition towards environmental sustainability through financial inclusion, and digitalization in China: Evidence from novel quantile-on-quantile regression and wavelet coherence approach," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 198(C).
    9. 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).
    10. Lin, Ying & Yan, Xiaohan & Yang, Xiuyun, 2023. "Digital finance and enterprise investment efficiency in China," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    11. Cristi Spulbar & Lucian Claudiu Anghel & Ramona Birau & Simona Ioana Ermiș & Laurențiu-Mihai Treapăt & Adrian T. Mitroi, 2022. "Digitalization as a Factor in Reducing Poverty and Its Implications in the Context of the COVID-19 Pandemic," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(17), pages 1-26, August.
    12. Qingmin Yin & Nan Su & Chenhui Ding, 2024. "The Nonlinear Effects of Digital Finance on Corporate ESG Performance: Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(18), pages 1-27, September.
    13. Tugba GUZ & Gulden POYRAZ, 2023. "The Digital Financial Inclusion Index: A Cross-Country Comparison," Journal of Economic Policy Researches, Istanbul University, Faculty of Economics, vol. 10(1), pages 157-180, January.
    14. Mr. Boileau Loko & Yuanchen Yang, 2022. "Fintech, Female Employment, and Gender Inequality," IMF Working Papers 2022/108, International Monetary Fund.
    15. Adugna, Hailu, 2024. "Fintech dividend: How would digital financial services impact income inequality across countries?," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    16. Srinivasu Bathula & Ankita Gupta, 2021. "The determinants of Financial Inclusion and Digital Financial Inclusion in India: A Comparative Study," The Review of Finance and Banking, Academia de Studii Economice din Bucuresti, Romania / Facultatea de Finante, Asigurari, Banci si Burse de Valori / Catedra de Finante, vol. 13(2), pages 109-120, December.
    17. Blind, Knut & Niebel, Crispin, 2022. "5G roll-out failures addressed by innovation policies in the EU," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 180(C).
    18. Valentina Vasile & Mirela Panait & Simona-Andreea Apostu, 2021. "Financial Inclusion Paradigm Shift in the Postpandemic Period. Digital-Divide and Gender Gap," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(20), pages 1-28, October.
    19. Donghong Wu & Yiren Chen, 2023. "Digital Inclusive Finance Development and Labor Productivity: Based on a Capital-Deepening Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(12), pages 1-17, June.
    20. Kropp, Per & Theuer, Stefan & Fritzsche, Birgit, 2021. "Digitalisierung schreitet voran – Neuschätzung der Substituierbarkeitspotenziale in Thüringen 2019," IAB-Regional. Berichte und Analysen aus dem Regionalen Forschungsnetz. IAB Sachsen-Anhalt-Thüringen 202104, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany].
    21. Yasuyuki Sawada, 2022. "Comment on "Measuring Digital Financial Inclusion in Emerging Market and Developing Economies: A New Index"," Asian Economic Policy Review, Japan Center for Economic Research, vol. 17(2), pages 233-234, July.
    22. Sant'Anna, Dário A.L.M. & Figueiredo, Paulo N., 2024. "Fintech innovation: Is it beneficial or detrimental to financial inclusion and financial stability? A systematic literature review and research directions," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    A. literature review; digitization of financial services; capital markets department; growth rate; Digital financial services; number in bracket; regression equation; Financial inclusion; Mobile banking; Middle East and Central Asia; Caribbean; Asia and Pacific;
    All these keywords.

    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:imf:imfwpa:2021/167. 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: Akshay Modi (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/imfffus.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.