| This study aims to explore the dimension of financial inclusion from the beneficiaries’ perspective(demand-side i.e.,from the customers’ point of view).In addition,it seeks to determine the relationship between financial inclusion and the disposable income of Pakistani households.Also,there is not a single study till now which has attempted to test the empirical relationship between financial inclusion and disposable income.To achieve the objective of the study,400 responses were accumulated from low-income urban households of Pakistan who were the beneficiaries of commercial banks using the purposive sampling technique.To test the hypothesized relationship,structural equation modeling(SEM)was conducted.Also,the tools employed were MS Excel,SPSS,and AMOS.The results revealed four significant dimensions to predict financial inclusion(access,availability,usage,and cost)from a demand-side perspective.The results also revealed that financial inclusion significantly and both directly and indirectly,impact disposable income.The evidence also,confirms that our research question has been answered appropriately in the models from 1 to 4.However,financial inclusion with inclusive growth(model 1)and growth effect(model 3)provides better models as compared to the models with opportunity effect(model 2)and distribution effect(model 3)in predicting disposable income.This study also emphasizes that inclusion in the formal financial system can enhance the disposable income of low-income urban households and assist them in combating poverty.Further,this investigation is among the earliest to provide a demand-side perspective to measure the financial inclusion dimensions of the most financially excluded group(low-income urban households in Pakistan).Besides,this study advances the literature on financial inclusion and disposable income and attempts to adequately bridge the gap in the literature by examining the relationship between financial inclusion and disposable income among low-income urban households.This research is also subjected to certain limitations.First,the detailed analyses of this research were geographically limited as all the respondents belonged to the three districts only due to time and resource constraints.Second,the study is based on a cross-sectional study design combined with quantitative data while ignoring longitudinal research and qualitative data.Third,the study considered formal financial institutions(commercial banks)only,while semi-formal and informal financial institutions are entirely overlooked.Finally,this study aimed at exploring the dimensions of financial inclusion and its impact on disposable income,specifically from low-income urban households’ perspectives.However,it could not reflect the outlooks of other stakeholders in particular business correspondents,bank staff,and non-government organizations(NGOs). |
