Financial inclusion and women economic empowerment in Ghana

Barbara Zelu, Susana Iranzo and Alejandro Perez-Laborda

Emerging Markets Review, 2024, vol. 62, issue C

Abstract: Although the impact of micro-credit and direct cash transfers on women economic empowerment has been extensively studied, the impact of having access to a bank account remains relatively understudied. This paper uses a detailed national representative dataset of female household heads in Ghana to analyze the relation between access to formal and informal financial accounts and women's economic empowerment. Using propensity score matching, our results elicit that women who have a financial account are more likely to be employed and tend to have higher income. The results are mainly driven by ownership of a formal account (i.e., in a commercial bank) while the impact of informal account ownership is not statistically significant. Thus our findings call for higher promotion of formal banking, particularly among women in rural and poorer areas where financial inclusion is lower.

Keywords: Financial inclusion; Women; Economic empowerment; Bank accounts; Ghana (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D14 D63 G21 G22 O12 O16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ememar:v:62:y:2024:i:c:s1566014124000852

DOI: 10.1016/j.ememar.2024.101190

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