The Impact Of Digital Inclusive Finance On Household Financial Asset Allocation

The rapid development of digital inclusive finance in China has alleviated the problem of unbalanced and insufficient financial services in China and effectively improved the allocation of household financial assets.Nevertheless,the allocation of household financial assets in China still suffers from relatively single and robust conservative investment choices.Analyzing the impact and extent of digital inclusive finance on household financial asset allocation from a micro perspective,while helping to understand the characteristics of China’s financial development,is also important for the direction of China’s financial deepening development and policy formulation.This paper constructs the macro digital inclusive financial environment index(FIS)and the household digital inclusive financial index(FID)from the supply-side and demand-side perspectives using data from the Peking University Digital Inclusive Finance Index and the China Household Finance Survey,respectively.This paper uses a double machine learning model and SHAP values to analyze the impact of macro digital inclusive financial environment(FIS)and household digital inclusive financial index(FID)on households’ allocation choices of deposit-based and risk-based assets,and the impact of macro digital inclusive financial environment on household digital inclusive financial index.And further heterogeneity analysis was conducted on four aspects of first,second and third tier cities,urban and rural areas,household income and financial literacy from the perspective of regions and households.The findings of the study include the following two main aspects.The results of the double machine learning model show that the effect of the macro-digital financial inclusion environment(FIS)on households’ holdings of risky financial assets increases non-linearly and that there is a threshold that affects the level of households’ holdings of risky financial assets."The impact of FIS on household deposit holdings shows an approximate inverted U-shaped trend.Second,the impact of demand-side household digital inclusion on households’ holdings of risky financial assets shows an "M" trend,i.e.,households at the two ends of the FID and in the middle do not significantly change their holdings of risky financial assets as a result of using digital inclusion.Again,both FIS and FID promote households’ holdings of multiple types of financial assets.Finally,the household digital inclusion index is also generally higher where the macro digital inclusion environment is better,but the relationship between the two is not perfectly linear.The results of the heterogeneity analysis show that FIS and FID have a more pronounced promotion effect on the holding of risky financial assets by households in second-tier cities.In a better macro digital inclusion financial environment,households with higher income and higher health are more likely to hold risky financial assets.Household digital inclusion is more significant in promoting the holding of both types of financial assets by households in secondand third-tier cities,rural households,households with lower incomes,and households with lower financial literacy of the household head.This paper analyzes the impact of digital inclusive finance on household financial asset allocation in a more comprehensive manner,and further confirms its role in promoting the diversification of household financial asset allocation in China,which enriches related research and has certain reference significance for the development of digital inclusive finance by the government and the utilization of digital inclusive finance by households.