Servizi finanziari come strumento di contrasto della povertà: microfinanza e microcredito

In recent years, the increase in the number of people with difficulties in accessing financial services and living in developed countries has promoted a new financial culture and encouraged the development of an inclusive financial system. In fact, the ability of a marginalized person to access to financial services is a necessary condition for a full participation in the economic and social life, thus affecting the economic growth and the stability of a country. Furthermore, there are many barriers to access to credit for people, especially families, who very often find themselves having to rely on personal wealth or other forms of internal resources to invest in some business activities or to realize some growing opportunities. Difficulties in accessing credit often lead families to resort to the informal system to meet their financial needs or to auto excluded from financial system. The paper aims to identify the main determinants that can influence the financial choices of Italian families in accessing credit through the use of banking channels or, alternatively, using informal financial channels, such as credit obtained from families and friends, rather than self-exclude themselves from the financial system. Finally, the study intend to put in evidence how microfinance can be an important innovative financial measure which will facilitate access to credit and other financial services to the lower classes of people and to mitigate the phenomena of poverty and inequality in access to economic resources. The study is realized through a multinomial logistic regression applied to a sample of data extracted from the “Survey on Italian household budgets”, published by the Bank of Italy in 2014, which covers 8,151 households surveyed. The results show that some factors such as sex, marital status, different types of employment, debt and net income could have a significant impact on the financing choices of Italian families.