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The World Bank Economic Review Advance Access originally published online on November 7, 2008
The World Bank Economic Review 2008 22(3):383-396; doi:10.1093/wber/lhn021
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© The Author 2008. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / THE WORLD BANK. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Access to Finance: An Unfinished Agenda

Thorsten Beck and Asli Demirgüç-Kunt

Thorsten Beck is a professor of economics and CentER fellow and chair of the European Banking Center at the University of Tilburg; his email address is T.Beck{at}uvt.nl
Asli Demirgüç-Kunt (corresponding author) is a senior research manager, Finance and Private Sector Development, in the Development Economics Research Group at the World Bank;

Correspondence: her email address is Ademirguckunt{at}worldbank.org

JEL codes: G2, G21, O16

Recent data compilations show that many poor and nonpoor people in many developing countries face a high degree of financial exclusion and high barriers in access to finance. Theory and empirical evidence point to the critical role that improved access to finance has in promoting growth and reducing income inequality. An extensive literature shows the channels through which finance promotes enterprise growth and improves aggregate resource allocation. There is less evidence at the household level, however, and on the effectiveness of policies to overcome financial exclusion. The article summarizes recent efforts to measure and analyze the impact of access to finance and discusses the unfinished research agenda.


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