Expanding Financial Inclusion for Youth : Does Digitalization Matter?

This paper analyzes how the digitalization of financial services contributes to the expansion of financial inclusion for youth by exploring its effects in Western Balkans. Its aim is to establish what indicators may have the most substantial influence on financial access in the region. Data for this study were collected from the 2017 Global Findex database for Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia. Data on the availability and use of mobile and Internet technologies were also applied. Three Probit estimations analyzed the data to find significance for factors wherein all variables were discrete and binary. The results indicate that being older, achieving a higher education and already being a user of digital technologies are all significant indicators of formal financial inclusion for the Western Balkans. Moreover, it is found that youth (15 - 29 years of age) are severely underbanked compared to their EU counterparts