@workingpaper{Asongu2014b_30,
title = {May the Soul of the IFS Financial System Definition RIP in Developing Countries},
author = {Simplice A Asongu},
editor = {African 2014 Governance and Development Institute WP/21/14},
url = {http://www.afridev.org/RePEc/agd/agd-wpaper/May-the-Soul-of-the-IFS-financial-system-definition-RIP-in-developing-countries.pdf},
year = {2014},
date = {2014-01-01},
abstract = {In this paper, we dissect with great acuteness contemporary insufficiencies of the IFS
(2008) definition of the financial system and conclude from sound theoretical underpinnings
and empirical justifications that the foundation, on which it is based, while solid for
developed countries, holds less ground in developing countries. Perhaps one of the deepest
empirical hollows in the financial development literature has been the equation of financial
depth in the perspective of money supply to liquid liabilities. This equation has put on the
margin (and skewed) burgeoning phenomena of mobile banking, knowledge economy (KE),
inequality…etc. We conclude that the informal financial sector, a previously missing
component in the IFS conception and definition of the financial system can only be
marginalized at the cost of misunderstanding recent burgeoning trends in mobile phone
penetration, KE and poverty. Hence, the IFS definition has incontrovertibly fought its final
dead battle and lost in the face of soaring trends highlighted above. Despite the plethora of
econometric and policy-making sins the definition has committed in developing countries
through bias estimates and misleading inferences, may its soul RIP.},
keywords = {Banking; Mobile Phones; Shadow Economy; Financial Development; Poverty},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {workingpaper}
}