This page has only limited features, please log in for full access.
The financial exclusion phenomenon has been approached from different perspectives. After reviewing the recent literature, we adopt a financial ecology approach and propose a comprehensive framework to analyse the different types of difficulties (access, use and perception) that vulnerable financial consumers face in relationships with banking institutions as well as their underlying causes. We consider financial inclusion as the sustainable provision of financial services and products and an adjustment to individual needs. We examine a special group of urban vulnerable consumers: underbanked people facing poverty and social exclusion. Data were obtained from focus groups and were coded and analysed using qualitative data analysis software. The results show that use difficulties predominate, followed by perception difficulties. Bank pressure and lack of financial training stood out among the main causes of these financial difficulties. We conclude that poorer neighbourhoods constitute a distinctive financial ecology produced by the ‘discrimination’ of a significant number of their inhabitants in the use of mainstream financial services. The study provides evidence of the socio-spatial nature of the exclusion process and calls for further research on the role of policy responses to restrict abusive practices.
Marta de la Cuesta-González; Juandiego Paredes-Gazquez; Cristina Ruza; Beatriz Fernández-Olit. The relationship between vulnerable financial consumers and banking institutions. A qualitative study in Spain. Geoforum 2021, 119, 163 -176.
AMA StyleMarta de la Cuesta-González, Juandiego Paredes-Gazquez, Cristina Ruza, Beatriz Fernández-Olit. The relationship between vulnerable financial consumers and banking institutions. A qualitative study in Spain. Geoforum. 2021; 119 ():163-176.
Chicago/Turabian StyleMarta de la Cuesta-González; Juandiego Paredes-Gazquez; Cristina Ruza; Beatriz Fernández-Olit. 2021. "The relationship between vulnerable financial consumers and banking institutions. A qualitative study in Spain." Geoforum 119, no. : 163-176.
Sustainable finance seeks to increase the contribution of finance to sustainable and inclusive growth. The global financial crisis of 2008 provoked the return of inequality in advanced countries to levels typical of a century ago. The aim of this paper is to empirically analyze the relationship between finance and income inequality for a group of nine OECD countries over the pre-crisis and post-crisis periods (2000–2015). The model proposed in this study simultaneously considers two explanatory variables for measuring financial depth (credit provision and capital markets) and a new multidimensional variable to measure the financial system’s resilience (a composite indicator), and conducts panel data analysis. The empirical results confirm that in terms of financial depth, the "too much finance hypothesis" holds. We also find that financial system’s resilience helps alleviate existing income inequality and that income inequality appears higher in liberal market economies than in coordinated economies. These results encourage policymakers to look beyond traditional public redistribution interventions and to pay attention to other financial variables related to the financialization process, the behavior of financial intermediaries, and the specific environment in which they operate.
Marta De La Cuesta-González; Cristina Ruza; José M. Rodríguez-Fernández. Rethinking the Income Inequality and Financial Development Nexus. A Study of Nine OECD Countries. Sustainability 2020, 12, 5449 .
AMA StyleMarta De La Cuesta-González, Cristina Ruza, José M. Rodríguez-Fernández. Rethinking the Income Inequality and Financial Development Nexus. A Study of Nine OECD Countries. Sustainability. 2020; 12 (13):5449.
Chicago/Turabian StyleMarta De La Cuesta-González; Cristina Ruza; José M. Rodríguez-Fernández. 2020. "Rethinking the Income Inequality and Financial Development Nexus. A Study of Nine OECD Countries." Sustainability 12, no. 13: 5449.
This paper aims to appraise the problem of financial exclusion in Spain after the process of banking system restructuration. The paper proposes a theoretical model for explaining the phenomenon of financial exclusion including both “access difficulties” and “difficulties in the use of financial services” as two dimensions that should be jointly considered. The main contribution of this paper is that it broadens the scope of financial exclusion from a theoretical and empirical point of view, and it also analyses the financial exclusion phenomenon at lower units of analysis that have not been previously explored: urban districts and municipalities. We considered Madrid and Barcelona as our scenarios of analysis. The methodological procedure was carried out in two steps: we first validate our theoretical model by applying canonical correlations, and secondly we carried out Quantile Regressions (QR) to estimate the different impact of financial exclusion’s predictors at different points of the empirical distribution. The empirical results indicate a trend towards low-cost retail banking to serve the segment of less profitable customers and a pattern of branch disappearance more pronounced in those territories vulnerable from a socioeconomic point of view.
Cristina Ruza-Paz-Curbera; Beatriz Fernández Olit; Marta de la Cuesta-González. Methodological Approaches to Analyse Financial Exclusion from an Urban Perspective. Springer Texts in Business and Economics 2018, 403 -418.
AMA StyleCristina Ruza-Paz-Curbera, Beatriz Fernández Olit, Marta de la Cuesta-González. Methodological Approaches to Analyse Financial Exclusion from an Urban Perspective. Springer Texts in Business and Economics. 2018; ():403-418.
Chicago/Turabian StyleCristina Ruza-Paz-Curbera; Beatriz Fernández Olit; Marta de la Cuesta-González. 2018. "Methodological Approaches to Analyse Financial Exclusion from an Urban Perspective." Springer Texts in Business and Economics , no. : 403-418.
The competitive nature of the Arab Middle Eastern (AME) banking markets during the 1990s is the focus subject of this study. Using banks data from nine AME countries, and utilizing the so-called Rosse-Panzar test to quantitatively appraise the dominant competitive conditions in these markets between 1993–97, this study concluded that banking markets have been operating in the region under conditions of monopolistic competition. An important finding revealed by this study is that in the AME region, where two distinct economic spectrums dominate the markets, banking sector in the oil-producing countries (Gulf States) appears to be less competitive than its counterpart in non-oil countries.
Waleed Murjan; Cristina Ruza. The competitive nature of the Arab Middle Eastern banking markets. International Advances in Economic Research 2002, 8, 267 -274.
AMA StyleWaleed Murjan, Cristina Ruza. The competitive nature of the Arab Middle Eastern banking markets. International Advances in Economic Research. 2002; 8 (4):267-274.
Chicago/Turabian StyleWaleed Murjan; Cristina Ruza. 2002. "The competitive nature of the Arab Middle Eastern banking markets." International Advances in Economic Research 8, no. 4: 267-274.