Environmental Change and Inclusive Finance: Does Governance Quality Matter for African Countries?

Abstract

This paper examines the effect of environmental change on inclusive finance in African countries during the period 1996–2020. It also investigates the moderating role of government quality on the association between environmental change and inclusive finance. We collected five-year average data from various sources such as the World Development Indicators, the World Governance Indicators, and the International Monetary Fund. Government quality is measured by six dimensions: political stability, voice and accountability, government effectiveness, regulation quality, the rule of law, and corruption control. Environmental change is measured by CO2 emissions. Inclusive finance is measured by the financial development index through depth, access, and efficiency ratios. These variables represent the most used in prior studies as they are published by international organizations such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, which represent a reputable source of timely information related to the business environment in which business executives operate in several countries. The results show a significant impact of environmental change on inclusive finance. Including economic governance induces a significant and positive effect on financial inclusion in all instances. Our results also show that the coefficients of the interaction between environmental change and governance dimensions are positive and significant. The moderator role of governance is improved when taking into account political, institutional, and economic governance. Our findings offer more motivation for regulators and governments to develop environmental policies that integrate inclusive finance to meet sustainable development goals. Our results are important as they can help regulators, investors, and policymakers to assess and better understand the potential moderation role of governance quality in the relationship between inclusive finance and environmental change.