Digital finance: a developing country perspective with special focus on gender and regional disparity

Amrita Chatterjee
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Abstract

Purpose Even if digital financial services have a positive impact on financial inclusion, it creates a digital as well as gender divide within and across countries, creating regional disparity even within developing nations. Though pandemic has initiated digitalization of various services, there has been scanty research on whether digital transfer of income can improve digital financial inclusion in post-pandemic era, especially in developing countries. The purpose of the current study is to explain the regional disparity within developing countries from three regions East Asia Pacific, South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, using latest World Findex data, 2021. Design/methodology/approach The author takes an instrumental variable approach to run bivariate probit model to find the factors that motivate the users to make digital payments. Findings The study observes that electronic transfer of wages, government transfers and remittances can motivate individuals to make use of digital mode of transactions and mobile. The practice of formal saving and borrowings are the prerequisites. However, this mechanism holds good for East Asia Pacific and not for South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, which are poor in information and communication technology infrastructure. Women are lagging behind men, but digital transfer of wages motivate them to make digital transaction. Practical implications Digitalization of all government services and provision of affordable mobile network and internet services are necessary for regions like South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. In East Asia Pacific region, data protection, data governance and better regulatory framework are required. Higher female labor force participation with digital transfer of wages and empowerment with smartphones are key to reducing the Gender gap. Originality/value The current study corrects for the possible endogeneity issue, which the extant literature has not paid attention to, and provides region-specific and gender-specific policy recommendations for an improved digital inclusion.
数字金融:发展中国家的视角,特别关注性别和地区差异
目的即使数字金融服务对金融包容性产生了积极影响,它也在国家内部和国家之间造成了数字鸿沟和性别鸿沟,甚至在发展中国家内部也造成了地区差异。尽管大流行病启动了各种服务的数字化,但关于收入的数字化转移是否能在后大流行病时代提高数字金融包容性的研究却很少,尤其是在发展中国家。本研究的目的是利用 2021 年最新的 World Findex 数据,解释东亚太平洋、南亚和撒哈拉以南非洲三个地区的发展中国家内部的地区差异。研究结果研究发现,电子工资转账、政府转账和汇款可以促使个人使用数字交易模式和移动设备。正规储蓄和借贷是前提条件。然而,这一机制适用于东亚和太平洋地区,而不适用于信息和通信技术基础设施薄弱的南亚和撒哈拉以南非洲地区。对南亚和撒哈拉以南非洲等地区而言,所有政府服务的数字化以及提供负担得起的移动网络和互联网服务是必要的。东亚太平洋地区需要数据保护、数据治理和更好的监管框架。通过数字工资转移和智能手机赋权来提高女性劳动力参与率是缩小性别差距的关键。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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