nep-mfd New Economics Papers
on Microfinance
Issue of 2026–05–11
three papers chosen by
Guadalupe Acra Ticona


  1. Financial Inclusion for Inclusive Growth By BEN CHEIKH, Nidhaleddine; Rault, Christophe
  2. Granular Bank Shocks and Financial Intermediation in a Low-Income Economy By Ahmed-Amine El Azdi; Onur Ozlu; Mr. Felix Fischer
  3. Gender, Financial Literacy and Active Stock Market Participation By M. Tedde

  1. By: BEN CHEIKH, Nidhaleddine (ESSCA School of Management); Rault, Christophe (University of Orléans)
    Abstract: Using a sample of 67 countries, this paper examines how financial inclusion shapes the transition to inclusive and sustainable growth. First, we analyze the heterogeneous and asymmetric effects of key determinants using panel quantile regression. The results show that financial inclusion, institutional quality, and ICT diffusion significantly affect inclusiveness only in the lower tail of the distribution. While financial inclusion and ICT diffusion appear detrimental, institutional quality promotes shared prosperity. Second, we explore a mediating effect using a non-linear panel threshold model. The findings highlight the role of financial inclusion in enhancing inclusive growth. Although ICT infrastructure negatively affects inclusiveness at low levels of financial inclusion, this relationship becomes positive beyond a certain threshold. These results suggest that policymakers should combine financial inclusion, governance quality, and ICT development to foster inclusive growth.
    Keywords: inclusive growth, financial inclusion, non-linear panel data modelling
    JEL: C23 O11 O16 O43
    Date: 2026–04
    URL: https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18582
  2. By: Ahmed-Amine El Azdi; Onur Ozlu; Mr. Felix Fischer
    Abstract: This paper studies how granular bank shocks propagate to aggregate credit in Mauritania’s banking system. Using confidential monthly data, we extract size-weighted innovations to lending growth and profitability. At the aggregate level, lending shocks are large and exhibit a near one-for-one mapping into monthly credit growth, accounting for roughly 80 percent of its short-run fluctuations. By contrast, profitability shocks are small, statistically insignificant, and contribute almost nothing to explaining aggregate credit. This pattern suggests that fluctuations in intermediation are driven by shifts in lending at a few dominant banks, while high earnings are largely retained as buffers rather than recycled into new credit, revealing a persistent wedge between profitability and the provision of financial services. The results have direct policy relevance for Mauritania and, more broadly, for low-income and emerging economies with concentrated and nascent banking sectors.
    Keywords: Banking sector granularity; financial intermediation; aggregate credit; idiosyncratic shocks; low-income country; emerging economies
    Date: 2026–05–01
    URL: https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imf:imfwpa:2026/087
  3. By: M. Tedde
    Abstract: Women are less financially literate than men and participate less to stock market. However, using a unique brokerage dataset and controlling for different levels of financial literacy, we find that women achieve lower scores in the MiFID questionnaire not because of lack of knowledge but because of lack of confidence in their knowledge. Nonetheless, female participation in stock market is still lower than male investors.
    Keywords: financial literacy;Confidence;MiFID Directive;gender gap;Stock market participation
    Date: 2026
    URL: https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cns:cnscwp:202603

This nep-mfd issue is ©2026 by Guadalupe Acra Ticona. It is provided as is without any express or implied warranty. It may be freely redistributed in whole or in part for any purpose. If distributed in part, please include this notice.
General information on the NEP project can be found at https://nep.repec.org. For comments please write to the director of NEP, Marco Novarese at <director@nep.repec.org>. Put “NEP” in the subject, otherwise your mail may be rejected.
NEP’s infrastructure is sponsored by the Griffith Business School of Griffith University in Australia.