This paper analyses financial inclusion in Africa focusing on the role of political business cycles and pricing behaviour of banks. We employ a sample of 330 banks operating in 29 African countries to test for two related hypotheses. Panel fixed and random effects were estimated for the period...

We document the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on digital finance and fintech adoption and usage. Drawing on mobile application data from 71 countries, we estimate that the spread of COVID-19 and related government lockdowns led to between a 33.1 and 36.6 percent increase in the relative rate...

We examine the intersection between financial inclusion, financial literacy, and financial technology. Using worldwide data, we find a significant positive relation between the World Bank's "Findex" measures and various measures of financial literacy, as well as Google Trends. We show that...