Legal and economic determinants of women’s legal access to formal finance

Evidence from South Asia

Bibliographic Data

ID24228642
AuthorsAditi Poudel (0009-0003-2840-9852, University of Nebraska–Lincoln), Nacasius U Ujah (0000-0002-2815-4752, South Dakota State University)
Year2026
Pages1-14
Publication date2026-10-11
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueDevelopment in Practice (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0961-4524 • E-ISSN: 1364-9213
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/09614524.2026.2744298
OpenAlexW7221537013
LanguageEN
References cited19

Despite decades of legal reform, women in South Asia continue to face barriers to legal access to formal finance. Using pooled country–year logistic regression for eight South Asian countries (1970–2022), this study examines how statutory legal rights and economic conditions shape women’s legal capacity to open a bank account on equal terms with men, measured as legal access rather than ownership. Stronger autonomy protections, particularly in parenthood, mobility, and assets, are associated with higher probabilities of equal access. A one-point increase in parenthood protections raises predicted access by about 0.4 percentage points. Log GDP per capita is negatively associated with access in the preferred specification (β = –1.920, p < 0.01), though its marginal effect is smaller than that of autonomy-related legal domains. These findings suggest that legal autonomy, especially in mobility, assets, and parenthood, matters more than income growth for women’s legal access to formal finance in South Asia.

gender and finance · South asia · women's asset ownership · women's legal rights · women's mobility · Banking stability, regulation, efficiency · Gender, Labor, and Family Dynamics · Microfinance and Financial Inclusion

Tools

Open DOI