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This paper aims to examine the relationship between mobile phones, the internet, financial inclusion, the informal economy and poverty reduction.

The study examines the relationship between mobile phones, the internet, financial inclusion, the informal economy and poverty reduction using the system generalized method of moments approach and a panel data set of 42 African countries for the period 1995–2017.

The study shows that mobile penetration and internet usage have significant positive relationship with the informal sector. Financial inclusion has significant effects, meaning that increased financial inclusion is associated with a developed informal economy. Also, mobile penetration and internet usage play significant roles in the relationship between financial inclusion and the informal economy. Further, mobile penetration and internet usage have a significant positive relationship with poverty reduction. Similarly, financial inclusion has significant effects, meaning higher financial inclusion is associated with increased poverty reduction. The informal economy also has significant effects, suggesting that the development of the informal economy is associated with poverty reduction.

Most importantly, mobile penetration, internet usage and financial inclusion play significant roles in the link between the informal economy and poverty reduction.

The increased adoption of internet-enabled phones in Africa has caused much speculation and optimism concerning its effects on financial inclusion. Policymakers, the media and various studies have all flaunted the potentials of internet and mobile phones for financial inclusion. An important question therefore is “Can the internet and mobile phones spur the inclusion of the financially excluded poor? This study therefore aims to examine the relationship and causality between internet, mobile phones and financial inclusion in Africa for the 2000-2016 period.

The empirical analysis followed these three steps: examination of the stationarity of the variables; testing for the cointegration; and evaluation of the effects of the internet and mobile phones on financial inclusion in Africa for the 2000-2016 period using three outcomes of panel FMOLS approach and Granger causality tests.

The empirical evidence shows that internet and mobile phones have significant positive relationship with financial inclusion, meaning that rising levels of internet and mobile phones are associated with increased financial inclusion. There is also uni-directional causality from internet and mobile phones to financial inclusion, implying that internet and mobile phones cause financial inclusion. The study also shows that macroeconomic factors such as capital formation, primary enrollment, bank credit, broad money, population growth, remittances, agriculture and interest rate, as well as institutional factors such as regulatory quality are important underlying factors for financial inclusion in Africa.

In the literature, there is a dearth of research on the internet, mobile phones and financial inclusion, especially in Africa. Most of the related studies are conceptual and micro-based, with little empirical attention to the relationship and causality between internet, mobile phones and financial inclusion. In fact, this dearth of rigorous empirical studies has been attributed as the main cause of inadequate policy guidance in enhancing information communication technologies (Roycroft and Anantho, 2003), despite saturation levels in developed economies. This study fills the gap by evaluating the effects of the Internet and mobile phones on financial inclusion for 44 African countries for the 2000-2016 period.

The explosion of mobile telephony in recent times has led to the emergence of a significant volume of literature. One area that has been relatively under-researched has been the role of mobile telephony in impacting economic growth and the relevance of financial inclusion in this respect. Using data on MENA countries during 2001-2012, this paper aims to examine this issue within an empirical framework.

The analysis is based on longitudinal data for the period 2001-2012 and examines the interrelationships among per capita income, financial inclusion and mobile telephony. To take on board this interrelationship, the authors use a simultaneous equation model. In contrast to the ordinary least squares, 3SLS exploits the information that the disturbance terms in the two structural terms are contemporaneously correlated, thereby producing consistent estimates.

The analysis suggests a significant relationship among these variables. In particular, a 1 per cent increase in the fraction of population using mobile telephony improves incomes by roughly 0.3 per cent points, whereas a similar 1 per cent increase in financial inclusion has double the impact on income. The findings also support a convex, non-linear relationship between income and cellular penetration. Robustness tests lend credence to these findings.

Although there are several studies on mobile telephony and growth, this paper provides a completely original contribution in the area of financial inclusion, linking the development of access to mobile communication to new channels for the unbanked population in the Arab economies.

The purpose of this research is to find the best solution in cutting the poverty chain in the human capital development framework based on human capital investment with the opportunity and threat of Internet Inclusion and Financial Inclusion. This study uses a vector error correction model to see the relationship between variables, response, and impulse between variables to provide an overview of the relationship between variables during the study period and forecast future variable trends. We found that technological and financial inclusion P2P Lending can be an opportunity and a threat to developing the Indonesian people's human capital to reduce poverty. Human capital is proven to be effective in reducing poverty. Increasing human capital through human capital investment supported by inclusion technology and financial inclusion can reduce Indonesia's poverty. Financial inclusion can increase entrepreneurial and economic growth.

The surge in internet usage has generated widespread speculation and optimism regarding its potential impact on the accessibility to financial services. The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of internet penetration on the accessibility of banking services in developed and developing countries.

Panel data regression methods are used to estimate the impact of internet penetration on accessibility to banking services in a sample of 74 countries from Global Findex survey waves of 2011, 2014, 2017 and 2021. To mitigate potential issues related to heteroscedasticity, autocorrelation and cross-sectional dependence, the study has implemented cluster robust standard errors testing. Furthermore, as a sensitivity check, the sample has been segregated into developed and developing country groups.

The study finds a significant positive correlation between internet penetration and banking access in full sample. Subsample analysis reveals that this relationship is statistically significant in developed countries, but not in developing ones, despite being positive. The research discusses the implications of these findings for both country groups.

Research to date has largely investigated the link between information and communication technology (ICT) and financial inclusion, often treating internet penetration as one component of ICT, which obscures its individual influence. This study, however, isolates internet penetration to specifically analyze its distinct effects on banking accessibility across developed and developing countries.

This paper explores how the relationship between freedom of access to information and freedom of expression is expressed across the international library community. Specifically, it analyses this relationship in the setting of Internet access in libraries where the Internet has been seen as a tool for fostering democracy and furthering social inclusion. Using preliminary analysis of data collected from a global survey of Internet access issues within the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) member countries (2003), and by comparing this data with a survey of European library institutions carried out in 2002, the paper shows the extent to which libraries – from the point of view of national associations and national libraries – are able to use the Internet to promote freedom of access to information and freedom of expression despite the existence of barriers to this task.

The expansion of connectivity on a national scale in Brazil, whether through mobile Internet or fixed broadband, is described as one of the factors that can lead to social and economic benefits for large parts of the population who do not have a network connection. It can also help to reduce poverty by improving the infrastructure of services and increasing Internet use for education purposes. It also provides people with the ability to communicate with online administrative services – local, regional, and national. In Brazil, the main difficulty facing an effective universalization of telecommunications has been limitations in accessing services. This chapter demonstrates the relevance of small Internet providers for the expansion of fixed broadband in less commercially attractive regions (in terms of subscribers, income, and distance) who have been growing over recent years and are now present in 70% of Brazilian municipalities and whose role is paramount to reducing the digital divide.

This paper aims to identify the role of internet/web services in spiritual tourism and the challenges faced in internet deployment and how they could be overcome.

The study was carried via structured questionnaires/interviews with open‐ended and closed‐ended questions with Indian pilgrims and the shrine board members. Also the web site/portals of Vaishno Devi Shrine Board and other religious places were analyzed.

Findings show the level of awareness amongst the pilgrims about how internet can play a major role in providing ease of information.

The use of information and communication technology provides greater convenience and comfort to pilgrims by providing access to information. The technology element facilitates hassle free darshan to tourists, encourages the rate of repeat visits by managing the long wait hours and also information about other services.

The paper focuses on the growing needs of internet in spiritual tourism in India.

Empirical research on the relationship between financial inclusion and economic growth has neglected the influence of religion or secularism. This study aims to investigate the effect of financial inclusion on economic growth in religious and secular countries.

The financial inclusion indicators are the number of automated teller machines (ATMs)per 100,000 adults and the number of bank branches per 100,000 adults. These two indicators are the accessibility dimension of financial inclusion based on physical points of service. The two-stage least square (2SLS) regression method was used to analyze the effect of financial inclusion on real gross domestic product (GDP) per capita growth and real GDP growth in religious and secular countries.

Bank branch contraction significantly increases economic growth in secular countries. Bank branch expansion combined with greater internet usage increases economic growth in secular countries while high ATM supply combined with greater internet usage decreases economic growth in secular countries. This study also finds that bank branch expansion, in the midst of a widening poverty gap, significantly increases economic growth in religious countries, implying that financial inclusion through bank branch expansion is effective in promoting economic growth in poor religious countries. It was also found that internet usage is a strong determinant of economic growth in secular countries.

Few studies in the literature examined the effect of financial inclusion on economic growth. But the literature has not examined how financial inclusion affects economic growth in religious and secular countries.

This study aims to empirically analyze the factors influencing digital financial inclusion in China.

Using panel data from 31 provinces in China for the years 2011-2018, the study constructed spatial econometric models for regression analysis at the national and regional levels.

Economic development, government intervention, internet penetration and the development of the credit level significantly affected the development of digital financial inclusion in China. However, the specific influence of the various factors varied by province. Provinces with less-developed economies generally had weaker economic foundations and underdeveloped digital financial services, making it more difficult to fully achieve digital financial inclusion.

Relevant government policies should strengthen digital infrastructure and improve the organizational systems and services of digital finance to support the balanced development of digital financial services in China.

China’s e-commerce development has been at the global forefront for decades, which suggests digital financial inclusion is also well-placed for strong development in China. However, quantitative research on the digital financial inclusion index has remained insufficient in China and worldwide, with most research ignoring the status of different development levels in a different region. To address this gap in the literature, this study empirically researched the status, regional differences and causes associated with these differences that impact digital financial inclusion in China.