Financial Access and Inequality: A Quantile Assessment Title: Financial Access and Inequality: A Quantile Assessment Authors: RADITYA SUKMANA1 and MANSOR H. IBRAHIM2 Affiliations: 1. Department of Islamic Economics,Faculty of Economics and Business, Universitas Airlangga, Indonesia; 2. International Centre for Education in Islamic Finance (INCEIF), Malaysia Publisher: International Journal of Economics and Management (IJEM) Abstract This paper examines finance – inequality relations by focusing on whether financial access mitigates income inequality at different levels of inequality. Applying quantile regressions to a cross-country data set of 73 countries, we find evidence that financial access serves as an inequalitymitigating factor only when income inequality of a country is low. In other words, for countries experiencing high inequality, emphasizing financial access in the development of finance may not reduce income inequality. From the analysis, we also find the significant role of trade openness and infrastructure in equalizing income distribution respectively at low and high inequality levels. The implications of these results are clear: there is no single policy that would fit all. In countries with low income inequality, the policy emphasis should be on widening financial access. Meanwhile, infrastructure development should be given priority in countries with high income inequality. Keywords: Financial Access, Income Inequality, Quantile Regression Sources: http://www.ijem.upm.edu.my/vol12no2/14)%20Financial%20%20Access%20%20and%20%20Inequality.pdf