Research On The Impact Of Digital Financial Inclusion On Relative Poverty

At present,China has solved the problem of absolute poverty historically,and the cause of poverty alleviation will change from solving the problem of absolute poverty to alleviating the problem of relative poverty.With the rapid development of digital financial inclusion,the coverage of financial services has been further expanded,the risks and costs of financial services have been reduced,and the availability of financial services at the individual level has been further improved.Digital financial inclusion is conducive to poverty alleviation,but in the context of the comprehensive elimination of absolute poverty,will digital financial inclusion exacerbate or alleviate relative poverty? What are the specific impact paths? Based on the above questions,this paper uses a series of empirical studies to clarify the impact and mechanism of digital financial inclusion on relative poverty.This paper mainly analyzes the impact mechanism of digital financial inclusion development on relative poverty,through economic growth and income distribution.In terms of empirical research,the overall index of digital financial inclusion and the categorical indices of the breadth of coverage,depth of use,and degree of digitalization are used as proxy variables to measure the level of digital financial inclusion development in China.In addition,this paper selects the Thiel index at the expenditure level of urban and rural residents’ consumption level as a proxy variable for residents’ relative poverty level and empirically demonstrates the mediating effect of economic growth and income distribution path between digital financial inclusion and residents’ relative poverty.Finally,the paper verifies the robustness of the empirical results of this paper using robustness tests.The results show that digital financial inclusion can contribute to alleviating the relative poverty of the population in the dimensions of the total index,breadth of coverage,depth of use,and digitalization.In the test of mediating effects,we can see that digital financial inclusion can alleviate relative poverty by promoting economic growth and improving income distribution.Digital financial inclusion has a positive effect on economic growth and income growth,while economic growth and income growth have a mitigating effect on the relative poverty level of residents.In addition,the heterogeneity analysis also shows that digital financial inclusion has a significant alleviation effect on the relative poverty level of residents in different regions,but the degree of effect is not the same,and its impact is most significant in the central region,followed by the western region,and finally the eastern region.Therefore,combined with the negative effect of digital financial inclusion on the relative poverty of residents and regional differences,this paper puts forward the following four policy recommendations: First,strengthen the construction of digital infrastructure.Second,improve China’s rural credit collection system.Third,improve the financial literacy of relatively poor groups.Fourth,accelerate the construction of a relative poverty governance system.