Financial inclusion and poverty: a tale of forty-five thousand households

Churchill, Sefa Awaworyi; Marisetty, Vijaya B.

doi:10.1080/00036846.2019.1678732

Cited by 129 publications

(95 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…The Lewbel (2012) 2SLS approach does not require any exclusion restriction to be satistfied, rather, it utilizes internally generated instruments based on a heteroskedastic covariance restrictions. The Lewbel (2012) 2SLS framework has been widely used in extant literature as a robustness check on findings with external instruments or when there are virtually no external instruments altogether (Bukari et al, 2020;Churchill & Marisetty, 2019;Churchill et al, 2020;Koomson et al, 2020). A key precondition for identification in the Lewbel (2012) framework is the presence of heteroskedasticity, which we confirm exist based on our Pagan-Hall and Breush and Pagan (1979) tests.…”

Section: Empirical Model Specification and Estimation Strategysupporting

confidence: 75%

Effect of COVID-19 on Household Food Insecurity and Poverty: Evidence from Ghana

et al. 2021

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Following the outbreak of COVID-19 and its heavy toll on the global community and humanity, a fierce debate on the pandemic and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) performance nexus has emerged. While the literature on this subject remains highly contested, evidence within the Ghanaian contest is sparse. Thus, we present micro-level evidence on how COVID-19 poses a threat to hunger and poverty as SDGs in Ghana. Precisely, we examined the effect of COVID-19 on households' food insecurity and poverty and further analysed gender and locational sub-samples for differential effects. Data on 3905 households were obtained via concurrent online survey and telephone interviews. The results indicate that, on several occasions, a significant number of the sampled households (57.76%) did not get enough food to eat due to the pandemic. The proportion of households that went on several times without clean water for home use and access medicines/medical treatments were 50.52% and 52.22%, respectively. About 60.72% of the sampled households affirmed that, on several times, they did not have enough income due to the pandemic. At the same time, the share of households that suffered food insecurity due to the pandemic was 69.04%. Instrumenting for COVID-19 using distance to the affected communities, we find that a standard deviation increase in COVID-19 is associated with a rise of 0.232 and 0.289 standard deviations in poverty and food insecurity, respectively. Our results are robust to alternative estimation approaches to addressing the endogeneity of COVID-19 and other sensitivity checks. We conclude that Ghana would need to develop a new spectrum of gender- and location-sensitive policies that engender social inclusion as a conduit to expediate the attainment of zero poverty and hunger. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11205-021-02766-9.

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Section: Empirical Model Specification and Estimation Strategysupporting

confidence: 75%

Effect of COVID-19 on Household Food Insecurity and Poverty: Evidence from Ghana

et al. 2021

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“…The study revealed that finance inclusion boosted the income of the poor in India, and the impact was more pronounced for women than men. Churchill and Marisetty (2020) confirmed the poverty reduction effects of financial inclusion on a sample of 45,000 Indian households. Soumaré et al (2016) used demand-side data to assess the determinants of financial inclusion in Central and West African countries.…”

Section: Literature Reviewsupporting

confidence: 54%

An exploratory analysis of financial inclusion in Chad

Ibrahim¹

2020

EurJ Appl Econ

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This paper aims to explore the state of financial inclusion in Chad. Adopting a Multiple Correspondence Analysis (MCA) on a sample of 1000 individuals from the Global Findex (2017), the study measured the inclusiveness of financial systems in Chad through a Financial Inclusion Index (FII). Furthermore, it assessed the distribution of the FII using the factor decomposition of the Gini coefficient. The findings showed that the average FII was low, 24.89%, and it varied between 7.43% and 60.35%. Financial institution account, deposit, withdrawal, and debit card ownership were the most influential indicators of financial inclusion in Chad. Moreover, the paper revealed that, despite its low level, financial inclusion was not smoothly distributed among the Chadian population (Gini coefficient of 0.196). The analysis of the financial inclusion inequality profile showed that there was a persistent financial inclusion gender gap in Chad, exacerbated by discriminations in education and income. Thus, policy interventions should target the provision of formal accounts, a reduction of costs of financial services (withdrawal and debit cards), and promoting formal savings by developing adequate savings products, to foster financial inclusion in Chad. Furthermore, these policies should be gender-responsive while considering its interaction with education and income.

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“…After trying several variables, distance to the nearest bank within the community where the farmer lives was used as the instrumental variable (IV). It is argued that distance to bank affects individuals' access to financial services as the closer the household is to a bank the more likely the household will be able to access formal financial services and be financially included (Koomson et al , 2020; Churchill and Marisetty, 2020). Hence, distance to bank affects farm productivity indirectly through financial inclusion.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Improving productivity among smallholder farmers in Ghana: does financial inclusion matter?

Peprah

Koomson

Sebu

et al. 2020

AFR

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PurposeDoes financial inclusion matter for productivity among smallholder farmers? The authors answer this question by using the sixth and seventh rounds of the Ghana Living Standard Survey to examine the extent to which financial inclusion affects productivity among smallholder farmers in Ghana.Design/methodology/approachThe study uses a pooled data of the 6th and 7th rounds of the Ghana Living Standard Survey which are national representative data. The authors model an Instrumental Variable (IV) to correct for endogeneity in financial inclusion and a dominance analysis to examine the effects of access to credit, ownership of savings account and insurance product on farmers' productivity.FindingsResults from the study indicate that financial inclusion significantly enhances productivity. Moreover, credit, savings and insurance products influence productivity at various degrees. Thus, expanding the scope of financial services (access to credit, savings and insurance) among smallholder farmers is crucial for inclusive finance and sustainable agricultural production.Practical implicationsThe findings of the study have implications for financial institutions in the design of financial products that the meet the needs of smallholder farmers.Originality/valueSeveral studies have looked at how access to credit influences agricultural productivity in Africa. However, in recent times financial inclusion has been advocated for because it goes beyond mere access to credit. This paper to the best of our knowledge is the first of its kind to examine how financial inclusion could affect agricultural productivity in Ghana.

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Financial inclusion and poverty: a tale of forty-five thousand households

Cited by 129 publications

References 40 publications

Effect of COVID-19 on Household Food Insecurity and Poverty: Evidence from Ghana

Effect of COVID-19 on Household Food Insecurity and Poverty: Evidence from Ghana

An exploratory analysis of financial inclusion in Chad

Improving productivity among smallholder farmers in Ghana: does financial inclusion matter?

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