Reference Dependent Financial Satisfaction over the Course of the Celtic Tiger: A Panel Analysis Utilising the Living in Ireland Survey 1994-2001

The link between income and subjective satisfaction with one’s financial situation is explored in this paper using a panel analysis of 4,000 individuals tracked through the course of the ‘Celtic Tiger’ boom period, 1994-2001. The impact of the level of individual and household income, the time-path of income and the impact of reference group income on financial satisfaction are all considered. To the extent that income influences financial satisfaction, there is strong evidence from this paper that household income has a greater effect on financial satisfaction than individual income. There is also evidence that changes in income have an independent effect on financial satisfaction with the time derivative of income entering positively in the financial satisfaction equation. Thus, our paper gives further evidence to support the hypothesis that individuals process changes as well as absolute levels of income. While reference group income has a negative effect at the start of the period it has no effect at the end.

Creating Assets, Savings & Hope Buffalo

Created in 2004, Creating Assets, Saving & Hope (CASH) Buffalo works to increase the financial stability of low-to-moderate income families in Buffalo and Erie County. CASH’s mission is to increase the financial stability of low-income families by increasing access to tax credits, refunds, and needed income supports; improving financial literacy, and providing opportunities for homeownership, education, or other types of asset building

Growth divergence and income inequality in OECD countries: the role of trade and financial openness. LEQS Paper No. 148/2018 October 2019

This paper analyses trade and financial openness effects on growth and income inequality in 35 OECD countries. Our model takes into account both short run and long run effects of factors explaining income divergence between and within the countries. We estimate, for the period 1995-2016, an error correction model in which per capita GDP and inequality are driven by changes over time of selected factors and by the deviation from a long run relationship. Stylised facts suggest that trade and financial openness reduce the growth gaps across the countries but not income inequality, and the effects of finance are stronger in high income countries. Nevertheless, low and middle income countries benefit more from international trade. Our contribution to the existing literature is threefold: i) we study the short and long run effects of trade and financial openness on income level and distribution, ii) we focus on developed countries (OECD) rather than on developing and iii) we provide a sensitivity analysis including in our baseline equation an institutional indicator, a trade agreement proxy and a dummy of global financial crisis. Estimates results indicate that trade openness significantly improved the conditions of OECD low income countries both in short and long run mostly, consistently with the catching up theory. It also decreased inequality, but only in low and middle income countries. Differently financial openness had a positive and significant impact only in the short run on middle income countries and increased income disparities within countries in the short term in low income countries and in the long term in high income countries

Financial development, trade openness and financial openness: do income levels matter for developing countries?

Using a panel of 29 African middle and low income countries with data spanning from 1988 to 2007, we analyze linkages between openness and financial intermediary development when income levels matter. Main findings are four: firstly, openness in the last two decades has not been the effect of growth and welfare, but of structural adjustment policies imposed by the IMF and World Bank; secondly, but for the positive impact of trade openness on the financial depth of low income countries, openness in sampled countries fail to bring about financial intermediary development; thirdly, financial openness brings trade openness for both income levels, but the reverse is true only for middle income countries; lastly, low income countries will benefit more from trade openness through financial deepening and financial openness than their middle income counterparts.Openness, financial intermediary development, income levels, panel, Africa.

Bringing Financial Literacy and Education to Low and Middle Income Countries: The Need to Review, Adjust, and Extend Current Wisdom

This paper presents a World Bank led and Russia trust fund financed work program to measure financial capability and the effectiveness of financial education in low and middle income countries. The two activities and their staging have been motivated by the lessons of high-income countries with financial literacy programs and the deviating characteristics of low and middle income countries. While progress has been made in high-income countries to measure financial capability, there is little robust empirical evidence that financial education can improve it. While applying the financial capability concept in low and middle-income countries looks promising it will need to be adjusted to their characteristic and supported by innovative interventions and rigorous impact evaluation to improve it.financial literacy, financial capability, financial education, impact evaluation

Foreign capital in a growth model

Within an endogenous growth framework, this paper empirically investigates the impact of financial capital on economic growth for a panel of 60 developing countries, through the channel of domestic capital formation. By estimating the model for different income groups, it is found that while private FDI flows exert beneficial complementarity effects on the domestic capital formation across all income-group countries, the official financial flows contribute to increasing investment in the middle income economies, but not in the low income countries. The latter appears to demonstrate that the aid-growth nexus is supported in the middle income countries, whereas the misallocation of official inflows is more likely to exist in the low income countries, suggesting that aid effectiveness remains conditional on the domestic policy environment

Financial Development and Income Inequality: A Panel Data Approach

We analyze the link between financial development and income inequality for a broad unbalanced dataset of up to 138 developed and developing countries over the years 1960 to 2008. Using credit-to-GDP as a measure of financial development, our results reject theoretical models predicting a negative impact of financial development on income inequality measured by the Gini coefficient. Controlling for country fixed effects and GDP per capita, we find that financial development has a positive effect on income inequality. These results are robust to different measures of financial development, econometric specifications, and control variables.financial development, income inequality, global, panel analysis

Keeping up With the Joneses: Institutional Changes Following the Adoption of a Merit Aid Policy

The increasing use by private colleges and universities of financial aid based on “merit”, as opposed to based solely on financial need has caused many to raise concerns that this type of aid will go mainly to higher income students crowding out aid to lower income students. However, some analysts suggest that by attracting more “almost full-paying” students through the use of merit aid, institutions will have more financial resources that they can use to increase their financial aid to low-income students and thus their enrollment. Results using data from the College Board’s Annual Survey of Colleges and other secondary data sources suggest that the increased use of merit aid is associated with a decrease in enrollment of low-income and minority students, particularly at more selective institutions. Additionally, this paper examines how institutions may be diverting financial resources to fund merit aid awards, such as through the increased use of part-time faculty, increases in tuition or fees, or smaller increases in faculty salaries. For middle and bottom tier colleges a merit aid policy is accompanied by an increase in tuition. Top tier colleges experience decreases in faculty salaries after the introduction of a merit aid policy, and bottom tier colleges see increases in salaries

Rural Perspective towards Financial Inclusion

Financial Inclusion or inclusive financing is the delivery of financial services at affordable costs to sections of disadvantaged and low-income segments of society, in contrast to financial exclusion where those services are not available or affordable. For the purpose of giving such financial services in easy and convenient way government has developed many financial plans in the rural areas. These plans are helpful for people who want to access financial services. The availability of banking and payment services to the entire population without discrimination is the prime objective of this public policy. Thus the term Financial Inclusion can be defined as the process of ensuring access to financial services and timely and adequate credit where needed by vulnerable groups such as weaker sections and low income groups at an affordable cost. The nations should takeover and remedy to reach the financial services to the weaker sections. So, this study has been undertaken to analyse the prospects of financial inclusion in rural areas.Keywords. Bank, Financial Services, Financial Inclusion, Rural Perspective.JEL. G20, G29, G30

Finance, Inequality, and Poverty: Cross-Country Evidence

While substantial research finds that financial development boosts overall economic growth, we study whether financial development disproportionately raises the incomes of the poor and alleviates poverty. Using a broad cross-country sample, we distinguish among competing theoretical predictions about the impact of financial development on changes in income distribution and poverty alleviation. We find that financial development reduces income inequality by disproportionately boosting the incomes of the poor. Countries with better-developed financial intermediaries experience faster declines in measures of both poverty and income inequality. These results are robust to controlling for other country characteristics and potential reverse causality.