The Impact of Digital Inclusive Finance on Urban-Rural Income Gap:A Case Study of the Yangtze River Economic Belt
XIE Jun-guang
ZHANG Jia
WEI Jun-ying
Abstract：Digital inclusive finance is a key driver for industrial innovation and entrepreneurship and plays a crucial role in narrowing the urban-rural income gap.To examine the relationship between digital inclusive finance and the urban-rural income disparity and to promote income equality and technological innovation along the Yangtze River Economic Belt,this study collects panel data from 105 prefecture-level cities in nine provinces of the belt(excluding direct-administered municipalities like Shanghai and Chongqing,as well as autonomous prefectures)from 2014 to 2022.Using both panel fixed-effects and mediation effect models,the findings reveal that improvements in the level of digital inclusive finance significantly narrow the urban-rural income gap in the Yangtze River Economic Belt.Moreover,a higher level of digital inclusive finance is positively associated with technological innovation and entrepreneurship,indicating its positive impact on technological advancement in the region.Innovation and entrepreneurship show a significant mediating effect in the process whereby digital inclusive finance reduces income inequality.Heterogeneity analysis shows that digital inclusive finance effectively reduces the urban-rural income gap across different grain functional areas,with a more pronounced effect observed in non-major grain production areas.
Keywords：Digital inclusive financeUrban-rural income gapInnovation and entrepreneurship
Publication Date：2025-08-25
Online Publishing Date：2025-09-26(First online date of this platform, not the publication date of the document)
Pages：8( 27-34 )