Open Access Journal Article

Research on the Impact of Digital Finance on China's Urban-Rural Income Gap

by Zhe Zhang a,*
a
School of Economics, Xi'an University of Finance and Economics, Xi'an, China
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
REA  2022, 5; 1(1), 5; https://doi.org/10.58567/rea01010005
Received: 7 November 2022 / Accepted: 21 December 2022 / Published Online: 30 December 2022
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Abstract

The integration of digital technology and traditional finance has further achieved the goal of low-cost and sustainable financial services and contributed to high-quality economic development. Based on the data from 31 provinces in China from 2011 to 2021, this paper empirically analyzes the impact of digital finance on the urban-rural income gap. The results show that digital finance can significantly narrow the income gap between urban and rural residents. The quantile test shows that the greater the urban-rural income gap, the stronger the role of digital finance in narrowing the urban-rural income gap. The threshold effect test shows that the narrowing effect of digital finance on the urban-rural income gap will first increase and then weaken with the continuous improvement of the development level. Heterogeneity analysis shows that the secondary indicators of digital finance can significantly narrow the urban-rural income gap, and the effect of depth of usage is the most obvious. Moreover, digital finance has a significantly stronger effect on narrowing the urban-rural income gap in the eastern region than in other regions. Therefore, we should vigorously promote the development of digital finance and give full play to its effectiveness in narrowing the urban-rural income gap.

Keywords: Digital finance; Urban-Rural income gap; Threshold effect;
Copyright: © 2022 by Zhang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
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ACS Style
Zhang, Z. Research on the Impact of Digital Finance on China's Urban-Rural Income Gap. Review of Economic Assessment, 2022, 1, 5. https://doi.org/10.58567/rea01010005
AMA Style
Zhang Z. Research on the Impact of Digital Finance on China's Urban-Rural Income Gap. Review of Economic Assessment; 2022, 1(1):5. https://doi.org/10.58567/rea01010005
Chicago/Turabian Style
Zhang, Zhe 2022. "Research on the Impact of Digital Finance on China's Urban-Rural Income Gap" Review of Economic Assessment 1, no.1:5. https://doi.org/10.58567/rea01010005
APA style
Zhang, Z. (2022). Research on the Impact of Digital Finance on China's Urban-Rural Income Gap. Review of Economic Assessment, 1(1), 5. https://doi.org/10.58567/rea01010005

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