Access to Financial Services : A Review of the Issues and Public Policy Objectives

By Stijn Claessens. 2005

722 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Finance is an important component of development, including for the poor. Indeed, much recent empirical evidence has shown that a more developed financial system can help reduce poverty and lower income inequality. In addition to facilitating overall economic growth, finance can help individuals smooth their income, insure against risks, and broaden investment opportunities. Yet, access to finance is limited in many developing countries to few individuals and firms. Policy questions thus arise concerning what determines access to financial services, what barriers may hinder access, whether more general availability of financial services should be a public sector goal, and, if so, what the best means of achieving this are.

Subfields: Accounting, Economics and Econometrics, Finance

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/31efedb40ecb997a04c7d94e6008e18adecd4750

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Citations in the corpus

How Does Financial Literacy Promote Sustainability in SMEs? A Developing Country Perspective (2019, background): “It is difficult for SMEs in emerging markets to access suitable, affordable financial services [48].”
Mobile Money and Financial Inclusion in Sub-Saharan Africa: the Moderating Role of Social Networks (2018, methodology): “…of financial inclusion was measured using the dimensions of access, quality, usage, and welfare, which were adopted from previous scholars such Čihák, DemirgüçKunt, Erik, and Levine (2012); Claessens (2006); Kempson (2006); Beck, Demirguc-Kunt., andMartinez Peria (2008); ACCION (2011); AFI (2011).”
The Nexus of financial inclusion and financial stability : a study of trade-offs and synergies (2016, background): “There is also a view that financial inclusion can enhance stability directly (Hawkins, 2006; Han and Melecky, 2013) and indirectly (Claessens, 2006).”
Sustaining Small and Medium Enterprises through Financial Service Utilization: Does Financial Literacy Matter? (2011, background): “Source: Adapted from Claessens (2006)”
Do microfinance institutions accomplish their mission? Evidence from the relationship between traditional financial sector development and microfinance institutions’ outreach and performance (2013, background): “While financial depth has long been one of the most used variables to assess financial development, recently more focus is being put on access and actual use of financial services (Claessens, 2005; Honohan, 2008).”
Access to Financial Services and the Financial Inclusion Agenda Around the World: A Cross-Country Analysis with a New Data Set (2011, positive): “These data are referenced and expanded upon in Claessens (2006), Honohan (2008), Gasparini et al. (2005) and Beck et al. (2007).”
Rent seeing distortions and fiscal procyclicality (2011, background): “Finally, as documented in Claessens (2006), lack of access to nancial markets is both prevalent and an important source of vulnerability in developing countries.6 The government chooses a uniform, proportional tax rate t: It cannot discriminate between the two groups A and B in its tax policy.”