Construcción de un Indicador de Inclusión Financiera Multidimensional y su Relación con el Nivel de Pobreza por Ingresos de los Individuos en el Ecuador Periodo 2018.

Abstract

Financial inclusion has gained global relevance due to its effectiveness in enhancing the quality of life for individuals, enabling them to fulfill their needs and cope with unexpected situations through access to quality financial products and services. However, its measurement has been challenging due to its multidimensional nature. Thus, this study employs the ENEMDU database from December 2018 and the Variational Autoencoder Neural Networks methodology to construct a financial inclusion index that encompasses the four dimensions of access, use, quality, and well-being. Subsequently, a logit model is utilized to examine the socio-demographic, economic, and financial characteristics that determine individuals' level of inclusion in Ecuador and analyze the relationship with income poverty. The index's results demonstrate that the level of financial inclusion in Ecuador is high for only a small portion of the sample. Upon categorizing the indicator between financially included and not included, the analysis revealed that low levels of education and poverty are the main factors that decrease the likelihood of being financially included.