AN ANALYSIS OF THE IMPACTS OF FINANCIAL INCLUSION ON INCOME INEQUALITY IN THE FRAGILE FIVE COUNTRIES

The equitable distribution of income is a very important problem in the economies of the past and present. In this sense, this study aims to investigate the relationship between financial inclusion and income inequality in the fragile five countries (Colombia, Mexico, South Africa, Turkey, Indonesia). For this purpose, a comprehensive index of financial inclusion was constructed for the Fragile Five Countries. A panel data set from 2005 to 2008 was used for the study. The econometric methods used are Principal Component Analysis (PCA), Parks-Kmenta Estimator and Dumitrescu and Hurlin Panel Granger Causality test. The results show that there is a negative relationship between financial inclusion and income inequality. There is a statistically significant “inverse-U” shaped relationship between GDP per capita and income inequality in the fragile five countries. However, there is a statistically significant and negative relationship between internet usage and income inequality. In this regard, the findings of this study imply that fair growth and financial inclusion together help to reduce income inequality.

Keywords:

Financial Inclusion Income Inequality, Panel Data Analysis,

PDF

___

AĞAZEDE, S., Karakaya, A. (2019). Finansal Gelişme ve Ekonomik Büyüme: OECD Ülkeleri Örneğinde Panel Nedensellik Analizi, Mehmet Akif Ersoy Üniversitesi İktisadi ve İdari Bilimler Fakültesi Dergisi, 6(2): 471-484.
AKÇAY, A. Ö., Erataş, F. (2012). Cari açık ve Ekonomik Büyüme İlişkisinin Panel Nedensellik Analizi Ekseninde değerlendirilmesi, Türkiye Ekonomi Kurumu, UEK-TEK 2012 İzmir: 1-24.
BAE, K., Han, D., Sohn, H. (2012). Importance of Access to Finance in Reducing Income Inequality and Poverty Level, International Review of Public Administration, 17(1): 55-77.
BETTIN, G., Pigini, C., Zazzaro, A. (2020). Financial Inclusion and Poverty Transitions: An Empirical Analysis for Italy (No. 164), Money and Finance Research Group (Mo. Fi. R.) Working Paper, Univ. Politecnica Marche-Dept. Economic and Social Sciences.
BREUSCH, T. S., Pagan, A. R. (1980). The Lagrange Multiplier Test and Its Applications to Model Specification in Econometrics, Review of Economic Studies, Blackwell Publishing, 47(1): 239-253.
DABLA-NORRIS E, Deng Y., Ivanova A., Karpowicz I., Unsal F., Vanleemput E., Wong J. (2015). Financial Inclusion: Zooming in on Latin America, IMF Working Paper 15/206. Washington, DC.
DEHEJIA, R. H., Gatti, R. (2002). Child Labor: The Role of Income Variability and Access to Credit in A Cross- Section of Countries, Working paper: 1-30.
DHRIFI A. (2015). Financial Development and The Growth-Inequality-Poverty Triangle, Journal of the Knowledge Economy, 6(4): 1163-1176.
DEMIRGUC-KUNT, A., Klapper, L., Peria, M. S. M. (2012). The Foundations of Financial Inclusion: Understanding Ownership and Use of Formal Accounts, The World Bank.
DEMIRGUC-KUNT, A, Klapper, L. F., Singer, D., Van Oudheusden, P. (2015). The Global Findex Database 2014: Measuring Financial Inclusion Around the World, World Bank Policy Research Working Paper, (7255): 1-61.
DUMITRESCU, E. I., Hurlin, C. (2012). Testing for Granger Non-Causality in Heterogeneous Panels, Economic Modelling, 29(4): 1450–1460.
FIELD, A. (2000). Discovering Statistics Using SPSS for Windows, London, Thousand Oaks, New Delhi, Sage Publications.
GARCIA-HERRERG A., Turegano D. M. (2015). Financial Inclusion, rather than Size, is the Key to Tackling Income Inequality, BBVA Research Working Paper 15/05. Madrid, Spain.
HONOHAN, P. (2008). Cross-country Variation in Household Access to Financial Services, Journal of Banking & Finance, 32(11): 2493-2500.
HONOHAN, P. (2004). Financial Development, Growth and Poverty: How Close Are the Links? in Financial Development and Economic Growth, London, Palgrave Macmillan.
JALILIAN, H., Kirkpatrick, C. (2002). Financial Development and Poverty Reduction in Developing Countries, International Journal of Finance & Economics, 7(2): 97-108.
JOHNSON, R. A., Wichern, D. W. 2002. Applied Multivariate Statistical Analysis, Upper Saddle River, NJ, Prentice Hall. KMENTA, J. (1986). Elements of Econometrics (Second ed.), New York, Macmillan: 302–320.
KUZNETS, S. (1955). Economic Growth and Income Inequality, The American Economic Review, 45(1): 24-37. LAN, H. H., Thuong, P. T. H. (2019). Financial Inclusion and Income Inequality: Empirical Evidence from Transition, Economies, Journal of Economics and Development, 21: 23-34.
LE, Q., Ho, H, Mai, N. (2019). The Impact of Financial Inclusion on Income Inequality in Transition Economies, Management Science Letters, 9(5): 661-672.
LEVIN, A., Lin, C. F., Chu, C. S. J. (2002). Unit Root Tests in Panel Data: Asymptotic and Finite-Sample Properties, Journal of Econometrics, 108(1): 1-24.
LI, H., Squire, L., Zou, H. F. (1998). Explaining International and Intertemporal Variations in Income Inequality, The Economic Journal, 108(446): 26-43.
MADDALA, G. S., Wu, S. (1999). A Comparative Study of Unit Root Tests with Panel Data and a New Simple Test, Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, 61(S1): 631-652.
MUSHTAQ, R., Bruneau, C. (2019). Microfinance, Financial Inclusion and ICT: Implications for Poverty and Inequality, Technology in Society, 59(101154): 1-19.
NEAIME, S., Gaysset, I. (2018). Financial Inclusion and Stability in MENA: Evidence from Poverty and Inequality, Finance Research Letters, 24: 230-237.
OMAR, M. A., Inaba, K. (2020). Does Financial Inclusion Reduce Poverty and Income Inequality in Developing Countries? A Panel Data Analysis, Journal of Economic Structures, 9: 1-25.
OUECHTATI, I. (2020). The Contribution of Financial Inclusion in Reducing Poverty and Income Inequality in Developing Countries, Asian Economic and Financial Review, 10(9): 1051-1061.
ÖZDAMAR, K. (2010). Paket Programlar ile İstatistiksel Veri Analizi-2 (Çok Değişkenli Analizler), Eskişehir, Kaan Kitabevi.
PARK, C., Mercado, R. V. (2018). Financial Inclusion, Poverty, and Income Inequality, The Singapore Economic Review, 63(01): 185-206.
PARK, C., Mercado R. V. (2015). Financial Inclusion, Poverty, and Income Inequality in Developing Asia. ADB Economics Working Paper Series 426/2015. Manila, Philippines, https://www.adb.org/sites/default/ files/publication/153143/ewp-426.pdf (Accesed on: 14 June 2021)
PARKS, R. (1967). Efficient Estimation of a System of Regression Equations When Disturbances Are Both Serially and Contemporaneously Correlated, Journal of the American Statistical Association, 62: 500–509.
PESARAN, M. H. (2004). General Diagnostic Tests for Cross-sectional Dependence in Panels, Empirical Economics: 1-38.
SALAZAR-CANTUS, J., Jaramillo-Garza, J., Rosa, B.Á. (2015). Financial Inclusion and Income Inequality in Mexican Municipalities, Open Journal of Social Sciences, 3: 29–43.
SARMA, M. (2008). Index of Financial Inclusion (No. 215), Working Paper: 1-26.
SEHRAWAT, M., Giri, A. (2016). Panel Data Analysis of Financial Development, Economic Growth and Rural- Urban Income Inequality, International Journal of Social Economics, 43(10): 998-1015.
SEVEN, U., Coşkun, Y. (2016). Does Financial Development Reduce Income Inequality and Poverty? Evidence from Emerging Countries, Emerging Markets Review, 26: 34-63.
SWAMMY, P. (1970). Efficient Inference in a Random Coefficient Regression Model, Econometrica, 38(2): 311– 323.
TATLIDİL, H. 2002. Uygulamalı Çok Değişkenli İstatistiksel Analiz, Ankara, Cem Web Ofset Ltd.
WORLD BANK (2014). Global Financial Development Report 2014: Financial Inclusion. World Bank Group, Washington, DC. https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/16238 (Accessed on 14 June 2021).
WORLD BANK (2018). Toward Universal Financial Inclusion in China: Models, Challenges, and Global Lessons, World Bank Group, Washington, DC.
YERDELEN TATOĞLU, F. (2013). Panel Veri Ekonometrisi (2. Baskı), İstanbul, Beta Yayınevi.
YERDELEN TATOĞLU, F. (2017). Panel Zaman Serileri Analizi Stata Uygulamalı, İstanbul, Beta Yayıncılık.