Financial Outreach and Working Poverty in Developing Countries : New Evidence from Bank Penetration

Coulibaly, Aissata ; Yogo, Urbain Thierry

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: FINANCIAL INCLUSION;    BANK PENETRATION;    WORKING POVERTY;    ACCESS TO FINANCE;    FINANCIAL SERVICES;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-8687
RP-ID  :  WPS8687

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

Although a growing body of literatureemphasizes that the poor may benefit from better access tofinancial services through more growth and employmentopportunities, there is a continuing debate about themechanism and extent to which such access would reduceinequalities. Considering that labor is the main asset ofthe poor, this paper investigates the impact of access tofinancial services, measured by the number of bank branches,on working poverty and inequality in the labor market. Thestudy uses a panel of 63 developing countries over 2004-13to demonstrate that improving financial access reduces theproportion of poor workers, especially in countries hit bymacroeconomic instability. The analysis shows that thenegative impact on working poverty is two times lessimportant than the positive impact on workers at the top ofthe income distribution, suggesting an increase ininequality. But this effect is mitigated, since the studyfinds evidence that providing greater access to financialservices for relatively rich workers can have a strongeffect on decreasing working poverty.