The objective of this article is to examine whether the banking sector contributes to reducing income inequality and poverty. We assess the effect of banks on income inequality considering various banking qualities with a dynamic panel data analysis of 46 emerging markets (EMs) and 66 low-income countries (LICs) using updated data for the 2000–2018 period. The simultaneous and non-linear effects of banking qualities were also evaluated. The results indicate that banking activities (i.e., availability, relevance, and financial efficiency) reduce income inequality and poverty for EMs and LICs. However, there is an optimal degree of each quality mentioned for banks’ impact on inequality beyond which it increases rather than decreases income inequality.

本文的目的是研究银行业是否有助于减少收入不平等和贫困。我们使用 2000-2018 年期间的更新数据，通过对 46 个新兴市场 (EM) 和 66 个低收入国家 (LIC) 的动态面板数据分析，评估银行对收入不平等的影响，同时考虑各种银行业务质量。还评估了银行质量的同步和非线性影响。结果表明，银行活动（即可用性、相关性和财务效率）减少了新兴市场和低收入国家的收入不平等和贫困。然而，对于银行对不平等的影响，提到的每种质量都有一个最佳程度，超过这个程度它会增加而不是减少收入不平等。