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This paper aims to estimate the determinants of the intensity of use of financial inclusion by households in Ghana.

Due to the reality of a household using one or more financial products or services, this study uses the generalised Poisson model applied to GLSS6 and GLSS7 data collected in 2012/2013 and 2016/2017 respectively, to estimate the determinants of the intensity of use of financial inclusion. To deepen the analysis, a multinomial probit model is also applied.

Results show that infrastructural variables such as roads, public transport and banks stimulate the intensity of financial inclusion. In addition, agricultural development characteristics such as markets and cooperatives are essential for the intensity of inclusion.

There is a need to incorporate how many services or depth of services that people use as part of the conceptualisation of financial inclusion, as this can provide more policy-relevant evidence to enhance priority setting in financial inclusion policies. Also, micro-level financial inclusion studies in agrarian economies should consider exploring agricultural development and infrastructure variables in the modelling framework. As lead to further studies, count models of financial inclusion should consider exploring cross-country analysis, the use of panel data, or other methodological approaches to provide more robust evidence.

Previous studies have not modelled financial inclusion based on a count model as a means of measuring intensity though conceptualisations highlight the fact that people use varied financial products or services. Following from this angle, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study provides the first attempt at analysing the underlying determinants of the number of financial products or services used by households.

The main purpose of this study is to evaluate COVID-19’s impact on the emerging stock markets.

To evaluate the influence of COVID-19, this study uses a novel method of event study methodology to measure the impact of COVID-19 on emerging stock markets. The research’s sample includes a total of 79 firms from 26 industries that are included in the KSE-100 Index from the Pakistan Stock Exchange. Three events were studied: (1) Announcement of the first case, (2) Start of lockdown and (3) End of lockdown.

This study establishes the findings that industries in the Pakistan Stock Exchange were overall negatively affected by the COVID-19. Commercial banks, Insurance, Real Estate and Textile were badly affected by the COVID-19. However, the Pharmaceutical, Refinery and Food and Personal Care Products industries had shown a positive response.

This study could bring in a new and useful insight into the literature on the impact of COVID-19 on the emerging stock markets. The results of this study provide insight to the investors in the emerging stock markets of the industries that are likely to show responses either negative or positive to news of regional or global outbreaks, lockdowns and end of lockdowns.

The work on COVID-19 has been mostly limited to the developed markets and the emerging markets have been overlooked. This study is a potential gateway to future works regarding pandemics in emerging markets.