Inclusión financiera y productividad: el caso colombiano

Abstract

Financial inclusion and productivity: the Colombian case

This paper aims to identify the effects of financial inclusion on productivity in Colombia. For its measurement we use a fixed effects panel data sample from the Annual Manufacturing Survey. The dependent variable corresponds to productivity at the establishment level, as a function of a portfolio of financial products. The results indicate that inclusion efforts understood as the adoption of financial services do not imply higher productivity. Therefore, they show persistent failures that limit access to capital and productive factors. It is advisable for future analyses to incorporate the savings instruments used by productive units. This study thus opens an important debate in the Colombian case and in similar economies, since various sectoral studies, trade union efforts and public policy focus on the adoption of a portfolio of products that instrumentalizes inclusion without achieving the intended benefits. Finally, this study concludes that access to a diversity of financial services does not guarantee an increase in productivity and may even deteriorate it.