Challenges for financial inclusion: the role for financial education and new directions

Magda Bianco (), Daniela Marconi, Angela Romagnoli and Massimiliano Stacchini ()
Additional contact information
Magda Bianco: Bank of Italy
Massimiliano Stacchini: Bank of Italy

No 723, Questioni di Economia e Finanza (Occasional Papers) from Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area

Abstract: Financial inclusion has received growing attention over the years as an enabling factor for promoting growth, reducing inequalities, and addressing poverty. In order to support policy choices aimed at enhancing financial inclusion, we investigate its main drivers, with a special focus on demand-side factors; more specifically, we enquire as to whether financial education may enhance financial inclusion. A cross-country analysis shows that, controlling for per capita GDP, higher levels of participation of individuals in economic life, greater financial knowledge and the existence of financial education strategies reduce the likelihood of a country being in the low financial inclusion segment. Moreover, as digitalization offers great opportunities to expand inclusion (but also some challenges), we provide evidence on the relationship between financial literacy and digital skills, showing that (at least in more advanced countries) digital skills are positively correlated with financial literacy from a young age. Based on our findings, we suggest some directions for future research, measurement and data collection, and policy actions.

Keywords: Financial inclusion; financial literacy; financial education (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D14 G53 O38 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ban, nep-fdg, nep-fle and nep-pay
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.bancaditalia.it/pubblicazioni/qef/2022-0723/QEF_723_22.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bdi:opques:qef_723_22

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Questioni di Economia e Finanza (Occasional Papers) from Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().