Table 1.

Summary of previous studies regarding financial inclusion, poverty and/or inequality

Reference	Location	Period	Dependent variables	Financial inclusion and main control variables	Main findings
(Neaime & Gaysset, 2018)	MENA countries	2002–2015	Gini index; Poverty growth rate	ATM per 100,000 adults; banks per 100,000 adults; education; female workforce; population; inflation; trade openness; age-dependency ratio; GDP; GDP per capita growth	Results suggest that financial inclusion decreases income inequality. Yet, it has no effect on poverty
(N'Dri & Kakinaka, 2020)	Burkina Faso	2016	Lack of nutrition; lack of healthcare; lack of education	Use of financial services (dummy); use of mobile money (dummy); age of respondent; gender of the respondent; household size; time-to-market; mobile phone ownership; education; land size; rural area	Financial inclusion reduces poverty (i.e., lack of nutrition, education, and healthcare). Moreover, it has a greater impact when individuals have access to digital financial services (i.e., mobile money)
(Iqbal et al., 2020)	Bangladesh	2010–2015	Population in moderate and extreme poverty (%)	Branches per 10 km2; accounts per adult; deposits per adult; credit per adult; river erosion; cropping intensity; paved road; high remittance	By using a unique dataset of 544 administrative sub districts of Bangladesh, the authors found that financial inclusion decreases both extreme and moderate poverty levels in rural areas
(Mushtaq & Bruneau, 2019)	62 countries	2001–2012	Poverty headcount ratio; Gini index; Poverty gap; GDP per capita	Deposits per head; Borrower ratio; Loans (% GDP); GDP per capita; trade openness; government consumption; inflation; mobile; fixed telephone; internet; price of 3-min local call	Results suggest financial inclusion had negative and significant effects on poverty and inequality. Moreover, Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) stimulate financial inclusion, therefore favoring economic growth and reducing poverty and inequality
(Demir et al., 2020)	140 countries	2011, 2014 and 2017	Gini index	Use of mobile phone to pay bills (% population); Accounts (% population); Savings (% population); Borrowers (% population); GDP growth; education; trade openness; government expenditure; inflation; population	Financial inclusion reduces inequality at all quantiles of the inequality distribution, and 'FinTech' also reduces income inequality
(Park & Mercado, 2017)	176 countries	2004–2012	Poverty headcount ratio; Gini index	ATMs per 100,000 adults; branches per 100,000 adults; borrowers per 1000 adults; credit (% GDP); depositors per 1000 adults; share of highest to lowest income; inflation; education; banks growth; GDP growth; Rule of Law	Results demonstrate that financial inclusion is capable of decreasing poverty and inequality levels. However, financial inclusion presented no effect on inequality when only a subsample of 37 developing Asian nations was considered
(Fouejieu et al., 2020)	Between 19 and 107 countries	2004–2015	Gini index	ATMs per 100,000 adults; number of bank branches per 100,000 adults; number of borrowers; number of depositors; number of mobile money accounts; number of mobile money transactions; inflation; telephones; trade openness; population; remittance; education; Rule of Law	Financial inclusion reduces inequality. The author tests for nonlinearities (i.e., the level of financial inclusion that increases inequality), and results suggest that financial inclusion does not boost inequality
(Omar & Inaba, 2020)	116 countries	2004–2016	Poverty headcount ratio; Gini index	Deposit accounts per 1000 adults; depositors per 1000 adults; branches per 100,000 adults; ATMs per 100,000 adults; loan accounts per 1000 adults; borrowers per 1000 adults; mobile users; GDP per capita; education; Rule of Law; inflation; government expenditure; trade openness	In addition to analyzing the determinants of financial inclusion, the authors found that financial inclusion reduces poverty and inequality levels in developing countries
(Cabeza-García et al., 2019)	91 countries	2014	GDP per capita	Accounts (% women over 15 years); borrowers (% women over 15 years); credit card (% female); workforce; expenditure in R&D; country-dummies	Greater female financial inclusion presents a significant and positive effect on economic growth
(Koomson et al., 2020)	Ghana	2016–2017	Poverty headcount; vulnerability to poverty	Ownership of financial products; use of financial products; access to credit; receipt of remittance; household size; female (dummy); rural (dummy); education (dummy); employment status; distance to nearest bank	Results suggest financial inclusion reduces the poverty levels in Ghana, in addition to decreasing the vulnerability to poverty. Also, results suggest that this effect holds for urban and rural households, although the effect is more pronounced in rural households
(Bruhn & Love, 2014)	Mexico	2000–2004	Wage earner dummy; Employment dummy; Income; Above minimum wage dummy; Business owner dummy	Presence of Banco Azteca after 2002 (dummy)	This study analyzes the effects of Banco Azteca in Mexico, as more than 800 branches opened almost simultaneously. The results show that bank opening led to a boost in informal businesses and increased the income levels, especially in low-to-middle-income populations and regions in which the previous bank presence was mediocre

This set of econometric studies was arbitrarily chosen by the authors, and they are presented in no particular order