The Impact Of Digital Financial Inclusion On Residents’ Risk Attitudes

With the rapid development of our economy,household residents are becoming increasingly important in the financial market,but there are still many households who are risk averse to risky financial products,leading to an extreme risk distribution in their asset portfolios and a conservative attitude to risk that may lead to unwise investment decisions.Risk attitudes have always played an important role in household financial investment.The rapid spread and development of digital finance has expanded the scope of services provided by financial institutions,broadened the financial horizons of residents and brought financial products into the lives of more people,providing a solution to alleviate the phenomenon of "limited participation".In the context of digital financial inclusion,more access to information,more knowledge,lower cost transactions and more convenient methods may lead to a gradual change in household residents’ attitude towards the risk of investing in financial assets.Through theoretical analysis and empirical testing,this thesis combines the China Digital Inclusive Finance Index and the China Household Finance Survey(CHFS)data as a combined dataset to explore the impact of the development of digital inclusive finance on residents’ risk attitudes.In the empirical analysis,the thesis finds that the development of digital inclusive finance can enhance the risk preferences of household residents in investing in financial assets through the Ordered Probit model and Tobit model,and from the perspective of both subjective and objective risk attitudes of household residents in China.The breadth of coverage,depth of use and degree of digitalization of digital inclusive finance can significantly affect the subjective and objective risk attitudes of household residents.Based on heterogeneity analysis,this thesis finds that digital inclusive finance has a more significant impact on the risk appetite attitudes of households in urban areas and those with junior and senior secondary education levels,and is more effective in increasing the subjective risk appetite of middle-income households.Regarding the impact mechanism,digital inclusion enhances the risk preferences of Chinese household residents to invest in risky financial assets from three perspectives:improving residents’ financial knowledge and financial literacy,increasing attention to economic information,and promoting participation in commercial insurance.Finally,the thesis concludes that the development of digitally inclusive finance significantly influences residents’ risk attitudes and increases the risk preferences of Chinese household residents,and puts forward countermeasure suggestions regarding the development of digitally inclusive finance,changing residents’ attitudes towards financial investment risks and optimizing the structural allocation of household risky financial assets.