The Impact Mechanism Of Fintech On Total Factor Productivity Of Financial Industry

The continuous integration of emerging technologies such as big data,cloud computing,artificial intelligence and blockchain with the traditional financial industry has promoted the continued development of fintech.The application of fintech technology has changed the traditional financial business mode,promoted the innovation of financial business,product and service mode,thus reduced the cost of financial services,improved the quality of financial services,and helped to improve the total factor productivity of the financial industry.However,the deepening of fintech also puts forward higher requirements for digital infrastructure.To strengthen the level of barrier-free financial services,financial institutions need to focus on bridging the digital divide caused by the difficulty in the application of intelligent technology.The existence of digital divide will become a hindrance to the traditional financial industry in the promotion and application of fintech products,thus affecting the role of fintech in improving the total factor productivity of the financial industry.In order to explore the influence process and mechanism of fintech on the total factor productivity of the financial industry,this paper systematically expounds the theoretical influence mechanism of fintech on the total factor productivity based on the financial innovation theory,technology spillover theory and industrial competition theory,combined with the existing research results,and proposes research hypotheses accordingly.Further,in order to study the mediating and moderating effects of digital divide,this paper uses the DEA-Malmquist index method to measure the total factor productivity of the financial industry during 2011-2020,and uses the systematic GMM method to empirically test the impact of fintech and digital divide on the total factor productivity of the financial industry.The main conclusions of the study are as follows: First,fintech development can significantly improve the total factor productivity of the financial industry,mainly through improving the financial innovation ability,enhancing the spillover effect of technology and promoting industrial competition,while the existence of digital divide will inhibit this enhancement effect.Second,the effects of fintech on different financial institutions are heterogeneous,with significant impacts on the banking and insurance industries,but insignificant impacts on the securities industry and other non-banking financial industries.For financial institutions that have established fintech subsidiaries,fintech plays a more obvious effect,while the inhibitory effect of digital divide is weaker.Third,from the perspective of different stages of fintech development,in the initial stage of fintech development,the impact on the total factor productivity of the financial industry is not significant,but with the continuous development of fintech,its effect on the improvement of the total factor productivity of the financial industry is constantly strengthened.Therefore,in the critical year of the 14 th five-year plan,our country should vigorously promote the development of financial technology,to help the traditional financial industry transformation and upgrading to digital,promote the deep integration of financial technology and traditional finance,so that our financial industry can realize a high level and high efficiency to serve the real economy,promote economic recovery and development.