Dataset File for: "Digital Financial Inclusion and Income Inequality in the Global South: A Structural Analysis of Credit Distribution and Economic Disparities"

This article investigates the relationship between digital financial inclusion (DFI) and income inequality from the perspective of dependent financialisation, focusing on credit distribution and financial dynamics in the Global South. Rather than treating DFI as a merely technical process of digitalisation, the study conceptualises it as a politically embedded mechanism that reshapes social structures through patterns of credit distribution. Drawing on an unbalanced panel dataset covering 32 countries between 2011 and 2021, the analysis employs a Panel-Corrected Standard Errors (PCSE) estimation strategy. The findings indicate that while DFI generally has an inequality-reducing effect, the extent and direction of this impact are strongly mediated by how bank credit is distributed between households and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Credit expansion targeting SMEs reduces inequality, whereas household-based credit inclusion strategies tend to exacerbate financial vulnerability and deepen income disparities. By highlighting the structural role of credit mechanisms within digital financial inclusion, the study offers a novel contribution to the literature. It concludes that achieving socially inclusive outcomes aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) requires redistributive credit policies, regulatory interventions, and the development of alternative financial models.