Essays on financial inclusion and sustainable development

The fact that the concept of financial development ignores the segment of the society that has problems especially in accessing financial services has brought the concept of financial inclusion, which prioritizes access to financial instruments for different income groups, to the fore in recent years. The advantages and disadvantages of financial inclusion for countries to achieve their sustainable development goals have also become an important issue of discussion. In this direction, this study explores the influences of financial inclusion on different types of sustainable development (economic, social and environmental) for EAGLE countries (Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Russia, Mexico, Türkiye) through the Driscoll-Kraay estimator and method of moments-quantile regression technique. Throughout the research, economic growth is used to represent economic sustainability, income distribution is utilized as a proxy for social sustainability, and environmental degradation indicator to observe environmental sustainability. According to the findings of the study, it is concluded that financial inclusion contributes to all focused dimensions of sustainable development. On the other hand, the positive effect of financial inclusion on economic growth has been found to be lower for countries with high real national income levels. Similarly, the regulatory effect of financial inclusion on income distribution weakens as income inequality increases. Finally, it has been observed that the effect of financial inclusion on reducing environmental degradation is lower in countries with high ecological footprint. Based on these findings, it is inferred that financial inclusion has diminishing marginal efficiency for all three different sustainability dimensions. Consistent with the findings of the study, various policy recommendations have been made, especially for countries where the marginal efficiency of financial inclusion has decreased.