{"title":"Asset accumulation, financial inclusion and subjective well‐being: The role of financial formality in South Africa's households","authors":"K. J. Chipunza, A. Fanta","doi":"10.1111/rode.13044","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Asset building and financial inclusion programmes have contributed to the enhancement of consumers' welfare through asset accumulation. Employing the FinScope consumer survey for South Africa, we extended the analysis of the relationship between financial inclusion and asset holding by examining whether this, in turn, improves consumers' subjective well‐being (SWB). Financial inclusion was captured by credit, savings, and insurance whereas multiple correspondence analysis was employed to compute an asset index that captured indicators of individual material possessions. Results from the partial least squares path model suggested that financial inclusion had an indirect positive association with consumers' SWB through increased asset holding, but the association was more pronounced via formal channels of saving, credit, and insurance. As such, social policymakers are encouraged to integrate access to insurance, credit, and savings through formal channels in poverty interventions since this has a greater indirect association with consumers' SWB via increased asset ownership.","PeriodicalId":47635,"journal":{"name":"Review of Development Economics","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.0000,"publicationDate":"2023-08-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"1","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Review of Development Economics","FirstCategoryId":"96","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1111/rode.13044","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"DEVELOPMENT STUDIES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 1
Abstract
Asset building and financial inclusion programmes have contributed to the enhancement of consumers' welfare through asset accumulation. Employing the FinScope consumer survey for South Africa, we extended the analysis of the relationship between financial inclusion and asset holding by examining whether this, in turn, improves consumers' subjective well‐being (SWB). Financial inclusion was captured by credit, savings, and insurance whereas multiple correspondence analysis was employed to compute an asset index that captured indicators of individual material possessions. Results from the partial least squares path model suggested that financial inclusion had an indirect positive association with consumers' SWB through increased asset holding, but the association was more pronounced via formal channels of saving, credit, and insurance. As such, social policymakers are encouraged to integrate access to insurance, credit, and savings through formal channels in poverty interventions since this has a greater indirect association with consumers' SWB via increased asset ownership.
期刊介绍:
The Review of Development Economics is a leading journal publishing high-quality research in development economics. It publishes rigorous analytical papers, theoretical and empirical, which deal with contemporary growth problems of developing countries, including the transition economies. The Review not only serves as a link between theorists and practitioners, but also builds a bridge between development economists and their colleagues in related fields. While the level of the Review of Development Economics is academic, the materials presented are of value to policy makers and researchers, especially those in developing countries.