Previous research has suggested that digital financial services have the potential to improve access to money and reduce income inequalities.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, many administrations have moved to mobile money or digital payments. For example, the government of Rwanda has increased the use of digital cash transfers, while Senegal has expanded the use of mobile money and lowered fees for these services.
But who takes part in these programmes and whether they have the potential to reach the most vulnerable depends on the distribution of digital financial services, according to a recent paper in Oxford Open Economics.
The research addresses this topic by studying how physical infrastructure and mobile phone network quality, as well as individual characteristics like education, affect the ability to access and use such services.
Using demographic and health surveys, and several geocoded databases, in Nepal, the Philippines, Senegal and Tanzania...