Income inequality, financial flows and political institution: sub-Saharan African financial network

Using firm-level loan contracts, we generate aggregate measures of financial connections and examine how these indices relate to income inequality in sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries. The results reveal that more connectedness is not beneficial for these economies as shown by the degree and the eigenvector indices. Betweenness centrality worsens income inequality such that the act of intermediation in the provision of financing remains...