A Study On The Impact Of Digital Inclusive Finance On The Income Of Rural Residents

The digital economy is the current mainstream trend of global development,and the most active area of innovative activities in the digital economy era is digital finance.With its advanced underlying technology and digital technology and credit as key elements,digital finance is injecting new blood into the development of inclusive socio-economic growth and financial inclusion.In the context of the "three rural areas",the focus of attention is on promoting the development of the rural economy,enriching the employment and entrepreneurship channels of farmers,broadening the avenues for farmers to increase their income,and achieving an increase in their income,which is also the core task of the "three rural areas".In recent years,China’s economic development has entered a new stage,and the speed of economic development has gradually changed from high to low growth.Rural residents are facing difficulties in finding employment outside the home,and the high production costs and low prices of agricultural products have put greater pressure on farmers to increase their incomes.The core of modern economic development is financial development,and financial development has become a key driver for achieving farmers’ income growth.China has been at the forefront of the world in the development of digital inclusive finance,especially in the rapid development of mobile phone payments,internet payments and e-commerce,all of which provide favourable conditions for digital inclusive finance to promote income growth for rural residents.Therefore,it is of great practical significance to study the effects and impact paths of digital inclusive finance development on the income of rural residents.To this end,this paper will focus on whether and how digital inclusive finance affects farmers’ income growth from the perspective of its development.Following the logic of posing a problem,analysing it with theory and empirical evidence,and solving it with policy recommendations,this paper constructs a linear regression model and a mediating effects model based on the 2017 China Household Finance Survey data(CHFS)and the 2016 Peking University Digital Inclusive Finance Index(DFI)to empirically analyse the overall level,breadth of coverage,depth of use and digitisation of digital inclusive finance on The study also uses the instrumental variables approach to address the endogeneity issue and the substitution variables approach for robustness testing.The findings show that: firstly,the development of digital inclusive finance has a significant effect on the income growth of rural residents;secondly,digital inclusive finance can improve the income level of rural residents through human capital and non-farm employment;thirdly,there are differences in the extent to which the development of digital inclusive finance affects different income dimensions,income structures and social capital groups;fourthly,improving the financial literacy,credit awareness,risk recognition ability and social capital of disadvantaged groups in rural areas,credit awareness,risk identification and the ability to use digital financial services will enable them to gain better benefits from the development of digital inclusive finance and have a more significant income growth effect.The empirical results of this paper have important policy implications:first,expanding the coverage of digital inclusive finance in rural areas.Financial education services for residents,especially financial services for low-income groups,should be carried out with a policy bias;secondly,investment in digital infrastructure in rural areas should be increased to improve the construction of financial service points in rural areas;thirdly,a sound regulatory mechanism for digital inclusive finance should be established to promote the sustainable and healthy development of the financial market;fourthly,great importance should be attached to the development of education levels in rural areas to prompt low-income groups to improve their living standards through Fourth,attach great importance to the development of education levels in rural areas,so that low-income groups can improve their living standards by raising their qualifications;fifth,improve the legal system for the protection of financial consumers.