Can Digital Financial Inclusion (DFI) effectively alleviate residents’ poverty by increasing household entrepreneurship? – an empirical study based on the China Household Finance Survey（CHFS）

Abstract

ABSTRACT Based on data from CHFS, this paper explores the mitigating effect of DFI development to enhance household entrepreneurship on residents’ income growth and asset poverty, and analyses whether there is significant diversity in the degree of impact between different regions and groups through a heterogeneity study. The study finds that DFI has a significant effect on poverty alleviation. In the mechanism analysis, the effect of DFI on income poverty and asset poverty alleviation through promoting household entrepreneurship is 2.97% and 9.27% respectively. In the heterogeneity, the development of DFI has a significant contribution to the alleviation of income poverty of rural residents and the alleviation of asset poverty of urban residents; among similar regions, the poverty effect alleviation effect is more pronounced for the group with higher education level. This paper enriches the research related to the promotion of entrepreneurship and thus poverty alleviation by DFI, and provides a theoretical basis and empirical reference for how to alleviate poverty by financial instruments.