Impact of Financial Inclusion in Low and Middle Income Countries: Evidence and Takeaways from a Systemic Review of Reviews

Seminar abstract

The financial inclusion of low income people is promoted by development institutions, governments and private sector actors as a driver of poverty alleviation, welfare enhancement, macroeconomic transformation and various other positive effects.

But what do we really know about the impacts of the extension of financial services?

This presentation will deliver and contextualise the findings of a first-of-its-kind study in international development, a systematic Review of Reviews (RoRs) of the impacts of financial inclusion in low and middle income countries.

By reviewing the meta-level evidence using theory-informed framework, and disaggregating its economic, social, gender and behavioural outcomes, it is revealed that the impacts of financial inclusion are more likely to be a positive than negative but also that these effects are highly variable and appear not to be transformative in scope of scale, as they largely occur in the early stages of the casual chain.

The most clearly positive effects come from saving services, which are relatively under-promoted.

The presentation will clarify the implications for the contested research and politics of financial inclusion.

Booking

This seminar is free to attend with no need to register in advance. We warmly welcome you to share with with friends, colleagues and classmates.

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Speaker bio

Dr Philip Mader is a research fellow in the Business, Markets and the State cluster at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS), University of Sussex.

His publications include the Routledge International Handbook of Financialization (2020) and The Political Economy of Microfinance: Financializing Poverty (2015).

His area of expertise include;

• political economy
• financialization
• financial inclusion
• youth employment
• impact evaluation

He has experience working in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa.