Does Financial Inclusion Enhance Economic Output? Evidence from North Africa

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of two dimensions of financial inclusion -namely availability of banking services and usage of banking services- on national economic output in four North African economies; Egypt, Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco. Availability of banking services was proxied by number of commercial bank branches. Usage of banking services was proxied by the sum of outstanding deposits and outstanding loans with commercial banks. National economic output was proxied by real gross domestic product. Using panel data for the years 2004-2020, panel regression analysis results revealed significant positive effects of both, availability and usage of banking services on national economic output when no time-lagging of the predictors was used, and also when the predictors were one and two year lagged. Theoretical contributions, practical implications and study limitations are discussed.