| The Northeast region was an important base that led China’s heavy industry to the forefront of the world during the New China era,and until now,its strategic position is still very important and has a very broad development prospect.In recent years,the implementation of the new round of Northeast revitalization strategy has promoted the upward economic and social development of the Northeast region,but the phenomenon that the per capita disposable income of rural residents in the region is still low as well as the large gap between urban and rural incomes still exists.The development of inclusive finance combined with digital technologies such as big data analysis will effectively expand the breadth and depth of financial services,improve their convenience and accessibility,enable rural residents to enjoy financial resources equally and efficiently,solve the problem of information asymmetry in rural areas,and better achieve the effect of narrowing the urban-rural income gap.By analyzing the level of development of digital inclusive finance in the three northeastern provinces and studying its impact on the urban-rural income gap,this paper will bring more insights and suggestions to the provincial governments and even the Party Central Committee in terms of local policies.The development of digital inclusive finance may also lead to the exact opposite result,as the existence of digital divide hinders the disadvantaged groups,especially rural residents,from accessing normal financial services,thus affecting their income levels and leading to a more serious urban-rural income gap problem.Based on the above two possible outcomes,this thesis investigates the impact of digital inclusive finance on the urban-rural income gap in the three northeastern provinces,so as to propose targeted suggestions and countermeasures for achieving comprehensive revitalization in the three northeastern provinces.The thesis is roughly divided into five parts.Firstly,through the research background and significance,this part mainly elaborates the reasons for determining the selected topic and the significance of the existence of this topic,and then reads and organizes the relevant literature to understand the current research in this selected field and explains the contribution of this thesis.Next,the theoretical foundation related to this thesis is introduced,and the level of digital inclusive finance development in the three northeastern provinces is analyzed,and it is found that the total digital inclusive finance index in the three northeastern provinces is below the national average,followed by an analysis of the current situation of the urban-rural income gap in the three northeastern provinces,and it is found that the urban-rural income gap is the largest in Liaoning province among the three northeastern provinces,but the urban-rural income gap in each of the three northeastern provinces from 2014 to 2020 However,from 2014 to 2020,the urban-rural income gap in each of the three northeastern provinces has narrowed.Is the narrowing of the urban-rural income gap due to the development of digital inclusive finance? To test the impact of digital inclusive finance on the urban-rural income gap in the three northeastern provinces,this paper first establishes a fixed-effects model to test the overall effect,and the test results show that the overall development of digital inclusive finance can reduce the urban-rural income gap in the three northeastern provinces;then discusses the possible endogeneity problems and uses instrumental variables to control the emergence of endogeneity problems,followed by a Robustness analysis is then performed on the model constructed in this paper;this paper then regresses all the data by province in a sub-sample to explore whether there are differences in the results between different samples in order to make targeted suggestions in terms of countermeasures.The results show that digital inclusive finance has a convergence effect on the urban-rural income gap in Liaoning and Heilongjiang provinces,while digital inclusive finance in Jilin province has no convergence effect on the urban-rural income gap;in the final part of the empirical evidence,the impact mechanism of digital inclusive finance on the urban-rural income gap is examined,and it is found that digital inclusive finance can play a role in lowering the threshold effect and alleviating the exclusion effect to have a convergence effect on the urban-rural income gap directly.It is found that digital inclusive finance can play a role in reducing the threshold effect and alleviating the exclusion effect,and can also indirectly reduce the urban-rural income gap through the "trickle-down effect".Finally,conclusions are drawn and suggestions are made to strengthen the construction of digital infrastructure in rural areas,increase financial literacy,implement differentiated management strategies by provinces and municipalities,and promote the reduction of the urban-rural income gap in a comprehensive manner. |
