Inclusive Finance,Self-employment And Household Consumption Of Floating Population

China is currently in a transition phase from achieving comprehensive prosperity to common prosperity.As one of the three pillars driving economic growth,consumption plays an essential role in building a new domestic and international"dual circulation" pattern and promoting common prosperity in the post-pandemic era.However,the existence of the urban-rural consumption gap in the dual economic structure of urban and rural areas severely impedes the role of consumption in promoting high-quality economic and social development.Therefore,it is an urgent and crucial issue to address how to narrow the urban-rural consumption gap and break through the constraints to achieve common prosperity in China.The proportion of China’s floating population to the total population is over 26%,and this group has enormous consumption potential.Thus,raising the consumption level of this special group becomes the key to bridging the urban-rural consumption gap.With the continuous improvement of China’s inclusive financial services and development level,whether inclusive finance can have a positive impact on improving the consumption level of this "special group" requires in-depth empirical research.This article explores the impact of inclusive finance on the consumption of China’s floating population households based on the employment decision-making system of floating population households.Through statistical analysis of the China Monitoring and Evaluation Study on the Health System Dynamic(CMDS)database in 2017,the article finds that nearly 40%of the floating population chooses self-employment,and there are significant heterogeneities among floating population groups with different employment decisions.Then,using the Peking University Digital Inclusive Finance Index,the article matches it with the CMDS2017 data to empirically test the relationship between inclusive finance,self-employment,and floating population household consumption.The article uses the Endogenous Switching Regression Model(ESRM)to effectively solve the endogeneity and sample selection bias problems and correct the estimation bias.Furthermore,based on the ESRM,the article conducts a counterfactual analysis of the consumption effect of self-employment decision-making and calculates the average treatment effect of self-employment decision-making to obtain the dynamic impact of inclusive finance on the heterogeneous consumption behavior of floating population households.The results show that(1)Inclusive finance plays a significant role in improving the household consumption level of the "special group" of floating population;(2)Compared with the employed population,inclusive finance has a more significant promotion effect on the consumption of self-employed floating population households,and self-employment is conducive to improving their household consumption level;(3)Compared with the older generation of floating population,inclusive finance has a greater promotion effect on the consumption of the new generation of self-employed floating population households.This article deepens the relevant research on the impact of inclusive finance on household consumption by focusing on the floating population,and provides clear policy implications on how to narrow the urban-rural consumption gap and better promote consumption’s role in economic transformation and upgrading.