Paper Title
Financial Access and Economic Growth in Thailand

Abstract
The relationship between financial development, commonly financial depth, and economic growth has been debated for more than five decades; in some developed countries financial development causes economic growth while in developing countries it cannot be confirmed. Development in financial sectors across the globe with technological progress enhances the ease level for economic agents to access financial services. Financial access, a new indicator, has been introduced by the IMF and the world bank in 2009 therefore the research on financial access and economic growth are in infancy. This paper aims to examine the causality relationship between financial access and economic growth in Thailand during 2004 and 2015. Financial access indicators are measured by the number of commercial banks branches per 100,000 adults (BRANCH), the number of automated teller machines per 100,000 adults (ATM), and the number of accounts deposited at commercial banks per 1,000 adults (DEP) whereas the change of real GDP per capita represents economic growth (RGDP). The Augmented Dickey – Fuller (ADF) Tests for stationary test indicate that BRANCH is stationary at the level, ATM is stationary at the second difference, and DEP and RGDP are stationary at the first difference. Thus there is no short run and long run relationship between these variables because they are integrated at different levels. The pairwise Granger Causality Test shows that there is no causality relationship between all financial access indicators and economic growth but there is a unidirectional causality linkage from BRANCH to ATM in other words a change in commercial banks branches affects the number of ATM. This effect can be explained that in Thailand ATM are installed nationwide not only in villages, department stores or convenient stores but also inside and outside of commercial bank branches to facilitate speedy financial services to their customers. Index Terms— ATM, bank branch, economic growth, financial access.