The state of finance in fragile states

This chapter describes the state of financial development in fragile states. Our analysis primarily relies on indicators from the World Bank Global Financial Development Database, which have been used extensively in the literature to capture the degree to which financial services and activities are present in an economy (depth) and the extent to which they are disseminated and made available to the population (inclusion). We find that financial depth in fragile states is underdeveloped and financial inclusion is low, but with significant heterogeneity among fragile states. We conduct empirical exercises which suggest that fragility is negatively related to financial development, both in terms of depth and especially in terms of inclusion, and exercises that also point to certain aspects of fragility most associated with financial underperformance. Finally, we use a benchmarking exercise to estimate how much financial underdevelopment in fragile states is costing them, in terms of economic growth.

Duke Scholars

Author Connel Fullenkamp Economics