Analyzing the role of poverty in financial development in selected countries

Poverty and economic inequality is a permanent problem that has always created challenges for societies. In this study, the role of poverty as one of the indicators of economic inequality in the spread of financial development has been investigated. In addition, the current research seeks to answer the question whether the impact of poverty on financial development depends on the level of trade openness of countries or depends on other factors. To achieve the aforementioned goals, a threshold panel model has been used for 35 developing and developed countries during the time period of 2000-2021. Also, in order to avoid the endogeneity problem, the 2SLS method and the use of instrumental variables have been used. The results indicate that as long as the degree of commercial openness is less than 71%, the increase in poverty causes a sharper decrease in financial development in the economy, and when the degree of openness is greater than 71%, the increase in poverty causes a smaller decrease in financial development. Also, the results of the model estimation show that the logarithm of per capita income, savings and population density have a positive and significant effect on financial development. The general conclusion indicates that increasing the degree of openness of the economy reduces the limiting effects of poverty on the expansion of financial development.