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The role of financial institutions and financial intermediaries in fostering economic growth (ECO) by improving the efficiency of capital accumulation, encouraging savings, and ultimately improving the productivity of the economy has been well established by the researchers. The reforms in the financial sector worldwide during the 1980s and 1990s were aimed at ushering in greater efficiency and more competitiveness.

The impact of financial market freedom (MF) on the overall development of the financial sector and thereby the growth in an economy is one of the most important considerations for policymakers over the years. This chapter aims to examine the causal relationship between financial MF and ECO in the Indian economy in the post-reform period.

The purpose of this study is to assess the nexus between the vast dimensions of financial inclusion and economic development of the emerging Indian economy.

In this study, vector auto-regression (VAR) models and Granger causality test were followed to test the main research question in Indian context. The data were collected on various dimensions of financial inclusion and economic development for the period 2004-2013.

Empirical results and discussion suggest that there is a positive association between economic growth and various dimensions of financial inclusion, specifically banking penetration, availability of banking services and usage of banking services in terms of deposits. Granger causality analysis reveals a bi-directional causality between geographic outreach and economic development and a unidirectional causality between the number of deposits/loan accounts and gross domestic product. The results obtained favor social banking experiments in India with a deepening of banking institutions.

This study is limited to the banking institutions and specifically to the emerging and developing economies.

This study analyzes the quantitative value of social banking experiments and governments’ efforts to enhance financial inclusion in terms of economic growth.

Financial inclusion plays a key role in developing a strong and an efficient financial infrastructure, which facilitates the growth of an economy. The findings of the study reveal that there is a strong association between banking penetration and growth. The discussion leads in the favor of deepening of the banking institutions, and therefore, policymakers can look forward to these findings to maintain a sustainable-inclusive-developed economic system in an emerging economy like India.

This study is original in nature and includes recent evidence and efforts to promote financial inclusion in the Indian economy. The findings of this study will be of value to banks and policymakers.

Lack of access to credit is commonly held responsible for slow agricultural and rural development in low- and middle-income countries. This paper aims to investigate the contribution of demand- and supply-side factors, particularly the role of risk rationing, on credit application and uptake in the case example of Kyrgyzstan.

Toward this aim, the study explores the determinants of credit behavior of 1,738 Kyrgyz sample farm households from 2013 to 2016 waves of the nationally representative “Life in Kyrgyzstan” (LIK) dataset along a hierarchical regression model, differentiating between factors influencing individual demand for credit and factors influencing supply for credit.

The results of our analysis indicate the relative importance of demand-side factors for credit applications, reflecting farmers' perceived risk of credit default and loss of collateral. Meanwhile, supply-side factors, such as real credit constraints and collateral requests, have a stronger influence on credit uptake rates and overall loan sums. These findings highlight the role of risk rationing for agricultural investment, suggesting a stronger focus of development policy on improving risk-sharing mechanisms for farmers, e.g. by developing the agricultural insurance sector.

The paper contributes novel evidence on the role of risk rationing in shaping the demand for formal credits for increasing agricultural and rural investment in low-income transition economies. Previous research has mostly focused on the role of credit supply, thus underrating the potential contribution of individual risk attitude, risk experience and risk sharing.