Nothing Special   »   [go: up one dir, main page]
IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/amj/wpaper/23001.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Financial inclusion in South Africa - Influencing factors and public policy

Author

Listed:
  • Marybeth-Rouse

    (University of Johannesburg (South Africa))

  • Bernardo Batiz-Lazo

    (Anahuac University (Mexico) and Northumbria University (UK))

  • Santiago Carbo-Valverde

    (University of Valencia (Spain))

Abstract
This paper explores the effectiveness of public policy in increasing financial inclusion. A large data set is used comprising repeat household surveys undertaken over a ten-year period. Contrary to previous results, the paper provides evidence of the strong impact of policy on access to financial services in South Africa. South Africa adopted a formal financial sector consensus model and, together with private sector development, succeeded in increasing access to financial services to the previously unbanked. The findings suggest that between 2005 and 2014, the most significant factors associated with financial inclusion were income, education level and age. Furthermore, those with a tertiary education were 31% more likely to have a bank account than those in the lowest education category. Policies to address the gender gap appear to have had a measure of success as the findings of this study indicate that women were 3.8% more likely to have a bank account than men. The findings further reveal that those from a black ethnic background remain less likely to be banked. Further policy interventions are therefore required.

Suggested Citation

  • Marybeth-Rouse & Bernardo Batiz-Lazo & Santiago Carbo-Valverde, 2023. "Financial inclusion in South Africa - Influencing factors and public policy," Papers 23001, Working Papers of Business and Economics School. Anahuac University (Mexico)..
    • Handle: RePEc:amj:wpaper:23001
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://revistas.anahuac.mx/public/REPEC/amj/wpaper/2023/Draft_FI_paper_28_February_23001.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Thorsten Beck & Asli Demirgüç-Kunt & Maria Soledad Martinez Peria, 2008. "Banking Services for Everyone? Barriers to Bank Access and Use around the World," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 22(3), pages 397-430, November.
    2. Fungáčová, Zuzana & Weill, Laurent, 2015. "Understanding financial inclusion in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 196-206.
    3. Susan Johnson & Max Nino-Zarazua, 2011. "Financial Access and Exclusion in Kenya and Uganda," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(3), pages 475-496.
    4. Honohan, Patrick, 2008. "Cross-country variation in household access to financial services," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 32(11), pages 2493-2500, November.
    5. Allen, Franklin & Demirguc-Kunt, Asli & Klapper, Leora & Martinez Peria, Maria Soledad, 2016. "The foundations of financial inclusion: Understanding ownership and use of formal accounts," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 27(C), pages 1-30.
    6. Patrick Opoku Asuming & Lotus Gyamfuah Osei-Agyei & Jabir Ibrahim Mohammed, 2019. "Financial Inclusion in Sub-Saharan Africa: Recent Trends and Determinants," Journal of African Business, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(1), pages 112-134, January.
    7. Ross Levine, 1997. "Financial Development and Economic Growth: Views and Agenda," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 35(2), pages 688-726, June.
    8. Robin Burgess & Rohini Pande & Grace Wong, 2005. "Banking for the Poor: Evidence From India," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 3(2-3), pages 268-278, 04/05.
    9. Ross Levine, 1998. "The legal environment, banks, and long-run economic growth," Proceedings, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, issue Aug, pages 596-620.
    10. Robert G. King & Ross Levine, 1993. "Finance and Growth: Schumpeter Might Be Right," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 108(3), pages 717-737.
    11. Michael Chibba, 2009. "Financial Inclusion, Poverty Reduction and the Millennium Development Goals," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 21(2), pages 213-230, April.
    12. Miriam Bruhn & Inessa Love, 2014. "The Real Impact of Improved Access to Finance: Evidence from Mexico," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 69(3), pages 1347-1376, June.
    13. repec:zbw:bofitp:2014_010 is not listed on IDEAS
    14. Don Johnston & Jonathan Morduch, 2008. "The Unbanked: Evidence from Indonesia," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 22(3), pages 517-537, October.
    15. Thorsten Beck & Asli Demirgüç-Kunt & Maria Soledad Martinez Peria, 2008. "Banking Services for Everyone? Barriers to Bank Access and Use around the World," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 22(3), pages 397-430, November.
    16. Neuberger, Doris, 2015. "Financial Inclusion, Regulation, and Education in Germany," ADBI Working Papers 530, Asian Development Bank Institute.
    17. John P Wentzel & Krishna Sundar Diatha & Venkata Seshachal Sarma Yadavalli, 2016. "An investigation into factors impacting financial exclusion at the bottom of the pyramid in South Africa," Development Southern Africa, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 33(2), pages 203-214, March.
    18. World Bank, 2014. "Global Financial Development Report 2014 : Financial Inclusion," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 16238.
    19. Ross Levine, 2008. "Finance And The Poor," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 76(s1), pages 1-13, September.
    20. 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.
    21. de Koker, Louis & Jentzsch, Nicola, 2013. "Financial Inclusion and Financial Integrity: Aligned Incentives?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 267-280.
    22. Anson, Jose & Berthaud, Alexandre & Klapper, Leora & Singer, Dorothe, 2013. "Financial inclusion and the role of the post office," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6630, The World Bank.
    23. Beck, Thorsten & Demirguc-Kunt, Asli & Martinez Peria, Maria Soledad, 2007. "Reaching out: Access to and use of banking services across countries," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 85(1), pages 234-266, July.
    24. Swamy, Vighneswara, 2014. "Financial Inclusion, Gender Dimension, and Economic Impact on Poor Households," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 1-15.
    25. Leora Klapper & Dorothe Singer, 2015. "The Role of Informal Financial Services in Africa," Journal of African Economies, Centre for the Study of African Economies, vol. 24(suppl_1), pages 12-31.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Ahmad Hassan Ahmad & Christopher Green & Fei Jiang, 2020. "Mobile Money, Financial Inclusion And Development: A Review With Reference To African Experience," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(4), pages 753-792, September.
    2. Rouse, Marybeth & Verhoef, y Grietjie, 2017. "Mobile banking in Sub-Saharan Africa: setting the way towards financial development," MPRA Paper 78006, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. 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.
    4. Ndlovu, Godfrey & Toerien, Francois, 2020. "The distributional impact of access to finance on poverty: evidence from selected countries in Sub-Saharan Africa," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).
    5. Taoyong Su & Yuzhu Yu & Yongheng Chen & Jian Zhang, 2019. "The Experience, Dilemma, and Solutions of Sustainable Development of Inclusive Finance in Rural China: Based on the Perspective of Synergy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(21), pages 1-18, October.
    6. Tyler Girard, 2020. "Bank Accounts for All: How Do State Policies Matter?," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(5), pages 793-818, July.
    7. Zibei Chen & Minchao Jin, 2017. "Financial Inclusion in China: Use of Credit," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 38(4), pages 528-540, December.
    8. Grohmann, Antonia & Klühs, Theres & Menkhoff, Lukas, 2018. "Does financial literacy improve financial inclusion? Cross country evidence," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 111, pages 84-96.
    9. Thi Anh Nhu Nguyen & Thi Thuy Huong Luong, 2023. "The Determinants of Financial Inclusion in Vietnam: A Demand-Side Approach," SAGE Open, , vol. 13(4), pages 21582440231, November.
    10. Abidin Alhassan & Leon Li & Krishna Reddy & Geeta Duppati, 2021. "The relationship between political instability and financial inclusion: Evidence from Middle East and North Africa," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(1), pages 353-374, January.
    11. Bao Zhu & Shiting Zhai & Jing He, 2018. "Is the Development of China’s Financial Inclusion Sustainable? Evidence from a Perspective of Balance," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-16, April.
    12. Shruti Malik & Girish Chandra Maheshwari & Archana Singh, 2019. "Understanding Financial Inclusion in India: A Theoretical Framework Building Through SAP–LAP and Efficient IRP," Global Journal of Flexible Systems Management, Springer;Global Institute of Flexible Systems Management, vol. 20(2), pages 117-140, June.
    13. Iqbal, Kazi & Roy, Paritosh K. & Alam, Shamsul, 2020. "The impact of banking services on poverty: Evidence from sub-district level for Bangladesh," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    14. Dar, Shafkat Shafi & Sahu, Sohini, 2022. "The effect of language on financial inclusion," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 106(C).
    15. Josephine Ofosu‐Mensah Ababio & Edward Attah‐Botchwey & Eric Osei‐Assibey & Charles Barnor, 2021. "Financial inclusion and human development in frontier countries," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(1), pages 42-59, January.
    16. Lu, Weijie & Niu, Geng & Zhou, Yang, 2021. "Individualism and financial inclusion," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 183(C), pages 268-288.
    17. Edgar Ghossoub, 2009. "The Institutionalization of Savings: A Role for Monetary Policy," Working Papers 0001, College of Business, University of Texas at San Antonio.
    18. Léon, Florian & Zins, Alexandra, 2020. "Regional foreign banks and financial inclusion: Evidence from Africa," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 102-116.
    19. Paula Cruz‐García & María del Carmen Dircio Palacios Macedo & Emili Tortosa‐Ausina, 2021. "Financial inclusion and exclusion across Mexican municipalities," Regional Science Policy & Practice, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 13(5), pages 1496-1526, October.
    20. 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.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Economic growth; financial inclusion; financial services; logistic regression; South Africa (SA);
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D14 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Saving; Personal Finance
    • G21 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Banks; Other Depository Institutions; Micro Finance Institutions; Mortgages
    • O4 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity

    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:amj:wpaper:23001. 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: Agustin Moya (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    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.