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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between the financial inclusion index and development variables in the least developed countries in Asia and Africa by using annual data of 42 countries for the period 2000–2019. The pooled panel regression and panel data analysis technique are used to explore this relationship. The empirical finding indicates that economic growth leads to financial inclusion. Unemployment and literacy rates are among the factors contributing to financial inclusion, and it is observed that women are more vulnerable than men are to lack financial inclusion. In less developed countries, the economy relies heavily on agriculture, and people are less financially inclusive when they live in rural areas of these countries. Also, pay inequality reduces financial inclusion rates and has a negative impact on development. The low financial inclusion rate reduces the levels of development in these countries. The results of this study can lead to the development and empowerment of vulnerable groups in the studied countries. In order to improve the conditions for development, policymakers should consider policies that enhance literacy, eliminate gender inequality and increase pay equality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Senior leaders in the US Department of Defense, as well as global affairs strategists and academics, have argued that China's economic growth is associated with a dramatic increase in competition for resources and Chinese influence abroad. We aim to ascertain whether and where competition between great powers exists and to characterize China's growing influence. Our main contribution is that we create a measure of competition among the United States, China, Russia, India, and France within African and Asian countries. We draw our data from a large media database that records news articles published since March 2015. We sum the quantity of articles published by local press agencies that discuss an international or regional powers' engagement in an event located within the Asian or African countries' borders, and we construct a measure of country-level competition among powers. To validate our country-level competition measure, we synthesize qualitative information from current government, think tanks, and academic documents on the presence and interests of foreign powers across subregions in Asia and Africa. From those narratives, we construct an additional subregional measure of competition. We compare our statistical country-level measure of competition to this narrative-based subregional measure of competition and find that they are correlated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]