The convergence of financial inclusion across provinces in Vietnam: A novel approach

PLoS One. 2021 Aug 26;16(8):e0256524. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0256524. eCollection 2021.

Abstract

Financial inclusion has generally been considered an effective mechanism to support economic growth and reduce Vietnam's poverty for the last decade. While the importance of financial inclusion to economic growth or macroeconomic stability has been widely examined, it appears that the degree of financial inclusion across Vietnam has not attracted attention from academics and policymakers. In particular, a convergence of financial inclusion across provinces in Vietnam has never been examined. This paper is conducted to examine the static and dynamic distributions of financial inclusion across provinces in Vietnam. The latest three biennial surveys from 2014 to 2018 and a novel approach known as the dynamic kernel density function are used in this study. Our results indicate that Vietnam's economic growth and development over the 2014-2018 period is relatively inclusive. The evidence also demonstrates that households provided with access to multiple sources of finance depend significantly on the provincial level of income. We also find that provinces located in the national key economic regions, including (i) the Northern region and (ii) the Southern region, appear to achieve a higher degree of financial inclusiveness. Our findings also confirm the catching-up from the financially disadvantaged provinces to financially advantaged provinces locating within the key economic regions. We argue that understanding the asymmetric effect of economic growth on financial inclusion will be helpful for the Vietnamese government in formulating and implementing economic policies promptly to secure the sustainable and inclusive goals of economic growth and development in the future.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Economics*
  • Educational Status
  • Family Characteristics
  • Geography
  • Humans
  • Statistics as Topic
  • Vietnam

Grants and funding

The study was supported by The Youth Incubator for Science and Technology Programme, managed by Youth Development Science and Technology Center - Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union and Department of Science and Technology of Ho Chi Minh City. The contract number is 14/2020/HĐ-KHCNT VƯ. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. No authors have received a salary from the funder.