Study On The Influence Of Digital Finance On The Efficiency Of Urban Green Economy

Profound changes in the field of information technology have driven the rapid development of digital finance,which has effectively contributed to the transformation of the economic development approach by expanding the coverage and penetration of financial services.In the context of the green transformation facing China’s development approach,the impact of this new financial model on China’s green development and its mechanisms are yet to be studied in depth.Based on this,this paper uses the panel data of 295 cities in China from 2011 to 2020 as the research sample,measures green total factor productivity to characterise green economic development using the super-efficient SBM model,examines the direct effect of digital finance on green economic development using the fixed-effects model,examines the indirect effect of digital finance on green economic development using the mediating-effects model,and examines the impact of digital finance on green economic development through sub The heterogeneity of regional heterogeneity and regulatory intensity is analysed through sample regression.Finally,a dynamic spatial Durbin model is used to measure the spatial spillover effects of digital finance on urban green economic efficiency.The main findings are as follows:(1)The spatial and temporal evolution pattern shows that there are still development imbalances between regions in China,and the convergence test shows that the imbalance is strongest in central China,while the development trend in the east remains highly consistent with that of the whole country,indicating that developed cities are still the mainstay of China’s economic development.In order to verify the above findings,the city panel data was further divided into city clusters,and it was found that the regions with higher green economy efficiency did not exactly match with the economically developed regions.(2)The empirical results show that digital finance has a significant positive effect on urban green economy efficiency,and it still holds after robustness tests such as replacing core variables,controlling for contemporaneous significant policies,and instrumental variables approach.In terms of the mechanism of action: mainly through alleviating local government competition,stimulating green innovation,and promoting advanced human capital structure,the mediated regression model passes the Sobel test.(3)The positive effect of digital finance on urban green economy efficiency varies across regions as well as regulatory intensity.After dividing the city panel data into three major regions,namely the eastern,central and western regions,it was found that the positive effect of digital finance on green economic efficiency was only significantly reflected in the eastern cities,but not in the central and western regions;regression by median regulatory intensity in the sub-sample revealed that places with higher regulatory intensity increased the effect of digital finance on urban green economic efficiency by limiting the monopolistic behaviour that digital finance tends to form.Green economy efficiency is improved.Both subgroups passed the Boostrap intragroup coefficient of variation test.(4)The development of local digital finance will enhance its own green economic efficiency and promote the green economic development of neighbouring regions at the initial stage,but after local digital finance has formed a certain scale,it will form a "siphon effect",attracting talents and capital from neighbouring regions,thus making it difficult for neighbouring cities to carry out green transformation and inhibiting their green economic efficiency This makes it difficult for neighbouring cities to make the green transition and inhibits their green economy efficiency.Finally,based on the previous measurement results and empirical analysis,the following policy suggestions are proposed: First,improve the digital financial infrastructure and strengthen its effect on the efficiency of urban green economy.Second,give better play to the role of local governments and promote coordinated development among regions.Third,while developing digital finance,promote the coordinated development of digital and talent elements.Fourth,implement a dynamic and differentiated digital financial development strategy,accelerate the flow of factors across time and space,and better promote the development of the real economy.