The impact of financial innovations on financial deepening in Africa: implications for household consumption expenditure

This paper used annual data for the period 2012–2019 to examine the impact of financial innovations on financial deepening in 34 African countries. Adding novelty to the literature, we also sought to investigate whether the perceived financial deepening instigated by financial innovations actually steered Household Final Consumption expenditure. Five financial innovation indicators namely the Africa Infrastructure Development Index, Automated Teller Machines, bank branches, mobile cellular subscriptions & secure internet servers were used. Financial deepening was proxied by three indicators namely bank deposits, domestic credit to private sector, and broad money. The Panel Corrected Standard Error estimates revealed that all five innovation indicators significantly increased domestic credit to the private sector. Equally, and only with the exception of mobile cellular subscriptions and secure internet servers (for the bank deposit model) & mobile phone subscriptions (for the broad money model), financial innovations significantly increased financial deepening in Africa. Secondly, the effect of financial deepening on consumption expenditure produced mixed results. While domestic credit to the private sector significantly increased the expenditure, bank deposits substantially impeded the same suggesting that financial deepening may not always promote household consumption. Based on the findings, it is apparent that African governments and the financial sector players can indeed leverage on the proliferation of financial innovations in reducing information asymmetry and boosting the access to and affordability of financial products. This widened provision of financial products, notably credit facilities by the financial institutions provides a robust and certain channel for optimizing household consumption and subsequently economic growth.

本文采用2012—2019年的年度数据，探究了金融创新（financial innovations）对34个非洲国家金融深化的影响。为该领域研究增添新视角的同时，本文还旨在探究金融创新所引致的金融深化，是否真正拉动了居民最终消费支出（Household Final Consumption Expenditure）。本文选取五项金融创新指标：非洲基础设施发展指数（Africa Infrastructure Development Index）、自动柜员机（Automated Teller Machines）、银行分支机构数量、移动蜂窝网络用户数及安全互联网服务器数量。金融深化以三项指标作为代理变量：银行存款、私人部门国内信贷（domestic credit to private sector）与广义货币（broad money）。
面板校正标准误（Panel Corrected Standard Error）估计结果显示，五项创新指标均显著提升了私人部门国内信贷水平。同样地，仅存在三处例外：银行存款模型中的移动蜂窝网络用户数、安全互联网服务器，以及广义货币模型中的移动电话用户数未产生显著影响，其余金融创新指标均显著推动了非洲地区的金融深化。
其次，金融深化对消费支出的影响呈现混合性结果：私人部门国内信贷显著提升了居民消费支出，而银行存款则大幅抑制了这一支出，这表明金融深化并非总能推动居民消费。
基于上述研究结果，非洲各国政府与金融市场参与者可借助金融创新的普及，缓解信息不对称问题，提升金融产品的可得性与可负担性。
金融机构拓展的此类金融产品供给（尤其是信贷服务），为优化居民消费、继而推动经济增长提供了坚实可靠的路径。