Illinois Global Institute

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Welcome to the calendar of the Illinois Global Institute. We are home to 10 longstanding international area studies centers and thematic programs. Bringing the units together as part of the IGI will improve organizational support, raise visibility, and foster additional cross-campus collaboration on essential international programs

Event Information

Lemann Lecture Series | Julia Fonseca | Financial Inclusion, Economic Development, and Inequality: Evidence From Brazil

Event Type
Lecture
Sponsor
Lemann Center for Brazilian Studies, co-sponsored by Women and Gender in Global Perspectives Program
Location
306 Coble Hall, 801 S Wright Street
Date
Oct 31, 2023   12:00 - 1:00 pm  
Speaker
Julia Fonseca
Contact
Lemann Center
E-Mail
lemann@illinois.edu
Views
28
Originating Calendar
Women and Gender in Global Perspectives Program (WGGP)

We study a financial inclusion policy targeting Brazilian cities with low bank branch coverage using data on the universe of employees from 2000–2014. The policy leads to bank entry and to similar increases in both deposits and lending. It also fosters entrepreneurship, employment, and wage growth, especially for cities initially in banking deserts. These gains are not shared equally and instead increase with workers’ education, implying a substantial increase in wage inequality. The changes in inequality are concentrated in cities where the initial supply of skilled workers is low, indicating that talent scarcity can drive how financial development affects inequality. 

Julia Fonseca is an Assistant Professor of Finance at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She received her PhD in Economics from Princeton University in 2019. Her research interests include household finance, development finance, and labor and finance. Her work focuses on topics like financial development, consumer financial markets, and inequality.

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