This paper applies a finite mixture model to a sample of 28 sub-Saharan African countries to analyse the impact of financial inclusion on income inequality between 2004 and 2016. We hypothesise that the effect of financial inclusion on income inequality differs across groups of countries with similar but unobserved characteristics. We find that the impact of financial inclusion on income inequality varies across two distinct classes of countries. Furthermore, we prove that countries with high institutional quality are more likely to be in the class where financial inclusion reduces income inequality. The results pass a battery of robustness checks. These findings highlight the need for sub-Saharan African countries to develop better democratic environments and institutions if they expect to reap the benefits of financial inclusion.

本文将有限混合模型应用于28个撒哈拉以南非洲国家的样本，以分析2004年至2016年间金融普惠对收入不平等的影响。我们假设，金融普惠对收入不平等的影响在具有相似特征的不同国家组之间存在差异但无法观察到的特征。我们发现，金融包容性对收入不平等的影响在两个不同的国家类别中有所不同。此外，我们证明，具有较高制度质量的国家更有可能进入金融普惠减少收入不平等的阶层。结果通过了一系列的健壮性检查。这些调查结果突出表明，如果撒哈拉以南非洲国家希望从金融普惠中受益，就需要发展更好的民主环境和体制。