Individualism and financial inclusion for females

The crucial role of financial inclusion for females in the context of their empowerment, household bargaining power, employment, and entrepreneurship is well established in the literature. Yet, what drives or constrains females’ financial inclusion has not been adequately investigated. We add to this literature by exploring the role of a specific cultural trait, individualism, in explaining variation in financial inclusion for females across countries. Given such cultures celebrate the achievements of all individuals and gives importance to individuals’ own preferences irrespective of gender, the importance of female access to and affordability of financial products and services will be emphasized. Our results support our hypothesis – individualistic cultures promote financial inclusion among females. Further, our results also show that the gender gap for financial inclusion is reduced in individualistic cultures. We establish identification via instrumental variable (IV) estimates.