Mobile Phones and Financial Access: Evidence from the Finscope Surveys of Selected Asian Countries

Sok Heng Lay

MPRA Paper from University Library of Munich, Germany

Abstract: This paper assesses the impact of mobile phones on the use of formal banking services in some Asian countries. Using the FinScope Surveys of Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Nepal, and Thailand conducted between 2012 and 2015, the paper applies a probit model to both cross-sectional and pooled data set. The results consistently suggest that having a mobile phone increases the probability of having access to financial services. The findings also highlight the importance of education which increases the likelihood of being formally banked, while distance or time to banking infrastructure is likely to remain a significant barrier for people to access to financial services for all countries. Other factors associated with the likelihood of changes in the levels of access to financial services vary widely from country to country.

Keywords: financial access; probit model; mobile financial service; financial institutions (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C35 G20 O16 O30 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018-05-30, Revised 2018-05-30
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dev, nep-pay and nep-sea
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pra:mprapa:87216

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