Financial Inclusion and Legal Discrimination Against Women : Evidence from Developing Countries
This paper documents and analyzes gender differences in the use of financial services using individual-level data from 98 developing countries. The data, drawn from the Global Financial Inclusion (Global Findex) database, highlight the existence of...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Policy Research Working Paper |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2013
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2013/04/17605618/financial-inclusion-legal-discrimination-against-women-evidence-developing-countries http://hdl.handle.net/10986/15553 |
| Summary: | This paper documents and analyzes gender
differences in the use of financial services using
individual-level data from 98 developing countries. The
data, drawn from the Global Financial Inclusion (Global
Findex) database, highlight the existence of significant
gender gaps in ownership of accounts and usage of savings
and credit products. Even after controlling for a host of
individual characteristics including income, education,
employment status, rural residency and age, gender remains
significantly related to usage of financial services. This
study also finds that legal discrimination against women and
gender norms may explain some of the cross-country variation
in access to finance for women. The analysis finds that in
countries where women face legal restrictions in their
ability to work, head a household, choose where to live, and
receive inheritance, women are less likely to own an
account, relative to men, as well as to save and borrow. The
results also confirm that manifestations of gender norms,
such as the level of violence against women and the
incidence of early marriage for women, contribute to
explaining the variation in the use of financial services
between men and women, after controlling for other
individual and country characteristics. |
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