Does Disproportionate Financial Inclusion Reduce Gender and Income-Group Inequality? Global Evidence
This paper investigates whether countries’ investments in financial inclusion, beyond what their economic capacity would predict, help mitigate gender and income-group gaps in financial opportunities. We construct a novel index, the Abnormal Financial Inclusion Index (<i>AbFII</i>), as t...
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MDPI AG
2025-06-01
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| Series: | International Journal of Financial Studies |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7072/13/2/103 |
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| author | Soon Suk Yoon Ingyu Oh Shawn S. Park |
| author_facet | Soon Suk Yoon Ingyu Oh Shawn S. Park |
| author_sort | Soon Suk Yoon |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | This paper investigates whether countries’ investments in financial inclusion, beyond what their economic capacity would predict, help mitigate gender and income-group gaps in financial opportunities. We construct a novel index, the Abnormal Financial Inclusion Index (<i>AbFII</i>), as the residuals from a regression of financial inclusion on GDP per capita to isolate country-specific efforts in advancing financial inclusion. Using data from 100 countries between 2014 and 2021, we find that higher <i>AbFII</i> is associated with lower gender and rich-poor inequalities in financial inclusion, particularly in low-income and high-inequality countries. A one-standard-deviation increase in <i>AbFII</i> corresponds to a 1.2 percentage point reduction in gender and income-group disparities in financial access. We also find that <i>AbFII</i> predicts subsequent improvements in broader gender inequality, especially in reproductive health. The results are robust to various controls and remain consistent under instrumental variable analysis using broadband penetration as an instrument. Our findings suggest that financial inclusion policies exceeding the level expected by economic development can significantly reduce social disparities. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-97d508fc579d4ecfaff3ff121e6a7d2e |
| institution | OA Journals |
| issn | 2227-7072 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-06-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | International Journal of Financial Studies |
| spelling | doaj-art-97d508fc579d4ecfaff3ff121e6a7d2e2025-08-20T02:21:12ZengMDPI AGInternational Journal of Financial Studies2227-70722025-06-0113210310.3390/ijfs13020103Does Disproportionate Financial Inclusion Reduce Gender and Income-Group Inequality? Global EvidenceSoon Suk Yoon0Ingyu Oh1Shawn S. Park2College of Business and Technology, Western Illinois University, 1 University Circle, Macomb, IL 61455, USACollege of Global Engagement, Kansai Gaidai University, 16-1 Nakamiya Higashinocho, Hirakata 573-1195, Osaka, JapanCollege of Business Administration, California State University San Marcos, 333 S Twin Oaks Valley Rd., San Marcos, CA 92096, USAThis paper investigates whether countries’ investments in financial inclusion, beyond what their economic capacity would predict, help mitigate gender and income-group gaps in financial opportunities. We construct a novel index, the Abnormal Financial Inclusion Index (<i>AbFII</i>), as the residuals from a regression of financial inclusion on GDP per capita to isolate country-specific efforts in advancing financial inclusion. Using data from 100 countries between 2014 and 2021, we find that higher <i>AbFII</i> is associated with lower gender and rich-poor inequalities in financial inclusion, particularly in low-income and high-inequality countries. A one-standard-deviation increase in <i>AbFII</i> corresponds to a 1.2 percentage point reduction in gender and income-group disparities in financial access. We also find that <i>AbFII</i> predicts subsequent improvements in broader gender inequality, especially in reproductive health. The results are robust to various controls and remain consistent under instrumental variable analysis using broadband penetration as an instrument. Our findings suggest that financial inclusion policies exceeding the level expected by economic development can significantly reduce social disparities.https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7072/13/2/103financial inclusiongender inequalityincome inequality |
| spellingShingle | Soon Suk Yoon Ingyu Oh Shawn S. Park Does Disproportionate Financial Inclusion Reduce Gender and Income-Group Inequality? Global Evidence International Journal of Financial Studies financial inclusion gender inequality income inequality |
| title | Does Disproportionate Financial Inclusion Reduce Gender and Income-Group Inequality? Global Evidence |
| title_full | Does Disproportionate Financial Inclusion Reduce Gender and Income-Group Inequality? Global Evidence |
| title_fullStr | Does Disproportionate Financial Inclusion Reduce Gender and Income-Group Inequality? Global Evidence |
| title_full_unstemmed | Does Disproportionate Financial Inclusion Reduce Gender and Income-Group Inequality? Global Evidence |
| title_short | Does Disproportionate Financial Inclusion Reduce Gender and Income-Group Inequality? Global Evidence |
| title_sort | does disproportionate financial inclusion reduce gender and income group inequality global evidence |
| topic | financial inclusion gender inequality income inequality |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7072/13/2/103 |
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