Financial Technologies for All MENA citizens: Tackling barriers and promoting inclusion

IF 1.7 Q2 GEOGRAPHY
Zakaria Elouaourti , Aomar Ibourk
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引用次数: 0

Abstract

The digital divide within the financial sector, closely intertwined with the rapid evolution of financial technologies, commonly known as "FinTech," has fundamentally reshaped the landscape of financial services. These innovations have ushered in novel avenues for accessibility, enhancing the security of financial transactions and transcending traditional spatiotemporal constraints. This paper embarks on a journey to address key inquiries within the MENA region. It explores digital financial inclusion levels across MENA countries, identifies segments facing digital financial exclusion, scrutinizes the role of the digital divide, often compounded by a lack of financial literacy, as a barrier to financial inclusion, and investigates how FinTech can serve as a catalyst for inclusive development, with a specific focus on marginalized groups like women and the elderly. Our research employs a comprehensive mixed-methodological approach. We draw from micro-level data sourced from 9053 individuals, extracted from the World Bank's latest Global Findex 2021 database. Our comparative analysis, rooted in a two-step principal component analysis method to create the MENA Digital Financial Inclusion Index (DFII), shedding light on the current state of digital financial inclusion in the MENA region. Despite recent initiatives, our findings underscore that digital financial inclusion in the region remains relatively low. Furthermore, our estimations, based on the Heckman selection methodology, emphasize the pivotal role played by factors such as educational attainment, labor force participation, information and communication technologies, and internet access as primary drivers of digital financial inclusion in the MENA region. Our research contributes a substantial body of empirical evidence regarding digital financial inclusion levels across MENA countries, charting a path toward bridging the digital divide within the financial sector. These strategies encompass enhancing digital financial literacy, catalyzing broader participation in the labor market, and facilitating expanded access to mobile phones and the Internet. In light of our comprehensive dataset, the policy implications drawn from our study are of paramount interest to financial sector regulators in the MENA region, grounded in the real-life experiences of the individuals constituting our database, with the overarching goal of elevating digital financial inclusion in the region to new heights.

面向所有中东和北非公民的金融技术:消除障碍和促进包容性
金融领域的数字鸿沟与金融技术(俗称 "金融科技")的快速发展密切相关,从根本上重塑了金融服务的格局。这些创新为金融服务的可及性开辟了新的途径,增强了金融交易的安全性,并超越了传统的时空限制。本文旨在探讨中东和北非地区的关键问题。它探讨了中东和北非国家的数字金融包容性水平,确定了面临数字金融排斥的群体,仔细研究了数字鸿沟(通常因缺乏金融知识而加剧)作为金融包容性障碍的作用,并研究了金融科技如何作为包容性发展的催化剂,特别关注妇女和老年人等边缘化群体。我们的研究采用了全面的混合方法。我们从世界银行最新的全球 Findex 2021 数据库中提取了 9053 人的微观数据。我们的比较分析以两步主成分分析法为基础,创建了中东和北非地区数字金融包容性指数(DFII),揭示了中东和北非地区数字金融包容性的现状。尽管最近采取了一些举措,但我们的研究结果强调,该地区的数字金融包容性仍然相对较低。此外,我们基于赫克曼选择方法进行的估算强调,教育程度、劳动力参与、信息和通信技术以及互联网接入等因素在中东和北非地区数字金融包容性的主要驱动力中发挥着关键作用。我们的研究提供了大量有关中东和北非国家数字金融包容性水平的经验证据,为弥合金融领域的数字鸿沟指明了道路。这些战略包括提高数字金融素养,促进更广泛地参与劳动力市场,以及为更多人使用手机和互联网提供便利。根据我们的综合数据集,我们的研究得出的政策影响对中东和北非地区的金融部门监管者具有重大意义,这些政策影响以我们数据库中个人的实际生活经验为基础,其总体目标是将该地区的数字金融包容性提升到新的高度。
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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来源期刊
CiteScore
3.60
自引率
5.90%
发文量
92
期刊介绍: Regional Science Policy & Practice (RSPP) is the official policy and practitioner orientated journal of the Regional Science Association International. It is an international journal that publishes high quality papers in applied regional science that explore policy and practice issues in regional and local development. It welcomes papers from a range of academic disciplines and practitioners including planning, public policy, geography, economics and environmental science and related fields. Papers should address the interface between academic debates and policy development and application. RSPP provides an opportunity for academics and policy makers to develop a dialogue to identify and explore many of the challenges facing local and regional economies.
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