Financial inclusion: what’s it worth?

Michael Ehrmann and Miguel Ampudia Fraile

No 1990, Working Paper Series from European Central Bank

Abstract: This paper studies the determinants of being unbanked in the euro area and the United States as well as the effects of being unbanked on wealth accumulation. Based on household-level data from the euro area Household Finance and Consumption Survey and the U.S. Survey of Consumer Finance, it first documents that there are, respectively, 3.6% and 7.5% of unbanked households in the two economies. Low-income households, unemployed households and those with a poor education are the most likely to be affected, and remarkably more so in the United States than in the euro area. At the same time, there is a role for government policies in fostering financial inclusion. Using a propensity score matching approach to estimate the effects of being unbanked, it is found that banked households report substantially higher net wealth than their unbanked counterparts, with a gap of around JEL Classification: G21, G28, D14

Keywords: financial inclusion; household finance; propensity score matching (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017-01
Note: 203739
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Financial Inclusion—What’s it Worth? (2016)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ecb:ecbwps:20171990

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