Economic Determinants of Financial Service Accessibility

This study investigates the influence of economic factors in ensuring access to financial services. Financial service accessibility is assessed using metrics such as the number of bank branches and ATMs per 100,000 people, as well as an index derived from these indicators. Drawing from existing literature, a set of economic variables - namely, employment, inflation, gross domestic savings, remittances, bank credit to deposits, and urbanization - are examined using data from 179 countries over eighteen years spanning from 2004 to 2021, with projections extending to 2023. The findings indicate that employment, remittances, bank credit to deposits, and urbanization exert statistically significant effects on access to financial services. These results are robust across alternative definitions of financial access, subsamples categorised by economic development, and exercises addressing endogeneity concerns.