AUTHOR=Shi Zheng , Qamruzzaman Md. 

TITLE=Re-Visiting the Role of Education on Poverty Through the Channel of Financial Inclusion: Evidence From Lower-Income and Lower-Middle-Income Countries

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Environmental Science

VOLUME=Volume 10 - 2022

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/environmental-science/articles/10.3389/fenvs.2022.873652

DOI=10.3389/fenvs.2022.873652

ISSN=2296-665X

ABSTRACT=For attaining Sustainable economic development in lower and lower-middle-income nations, the role of poverty reduction has been critically addressed along with the economic determents that are managed poverty level has accelerated economic progress through ensuring the outperform of other macro variables including FDI inflows, financial development, Trade openness, and human capital accumulation. The purpose of this Study is to evaluate the role of education and financial inclusion in poverty reduction in lower and lower-middle-income countries for the period 1995-2018 with a panel of 68 nations.  The Study applied several econometrical tools, including cross-sectional dependency test (CDS), panel unit root test, panel cointegration test, Generalized Methods of Moment (GMM), and system –GMM. CDS results confirmed the sharing of typical dynamics in research units. The test of stationarity detected variables were integrated after the first difference. A panel cointegration test documented the long-run association between education, financial inclusion, and poverty. The Study documented that government investment in education positively assists poverty reduction, implying a negative association between them. Furthermore, the inclusion of the population into the formal financial system expedited the poverty reduction process that access to formal financial benefits allows earning opportunities and higher purchasing power, eventually supporting an increasing standard of living. Directional causality tests revealed feedback hypothesis holds in explaining the nexus between education, financial inclusion, and poverty, i.e., [EDPoverty; FIPoverty]. For policy reform and restructuring, it is essential to pay considerable attention to development in education and access to the formal financial system because progress in education and financial have positive spillover effects on the aggregated economy