Can FinTech Development Curb Agricultural Nonpoint Source Pollution?

Song Jiang,Hong Zhou,Meilan Chen,Shuang Qiu

doi:10.3390/ijerph16224340

Abstract

The green development of FinTech empowerment has become a compelling theme in economic development. In this study, based on the weighted least squares (WLS) and threshold regression methods of cross-sectional data, we empirically examine the impact of FinTech development on agricultural nonpoint source (NPS) pollution, a major cause of impaired surface water quality. Our results show that there is an inverted “U” shape relationship between the development of FinTech and agricultural NPS pollution. That is, after crossing a “threshold value”, the level of FinTech development can curb agricultural NPS pollution. At the structural level, the availability of FinTech services, the FinTech infrastructure, and the agricultural NPS pollution also have an inverted “U” shape relationship. At the threshold effect, in the developing stage of an agricultural economy, the overall level of FinTech development, the use of FinTech services, the availability of FinTech services, and the FinTech infrastructure have an inverted “U” shape relationship with agricultural NPS pollution. On the other hand, in the developed stage of an agricultural economy, the impact of FinTech development and its structure on agricultural NPS pollution is insignificant. Hence, we can conclude that FinTech development can help reduce agricultural NPS pollution in under-developed regions. However, due to the fact that a “U” shape relationship always exists between FinTech service quality and agricultural NPS pollution, the quality of FinTech service should be the main focus to reduce agricultural NPS pollution more effectively.

Highlights

Nonpoint source (NPS) pollution, such as agricultural runoff of nutrients and sediment, is the chief cause of impaired surface water quality today [1,2,3]
It should be noted that, as this study focuses on the impact of financial technology (FinTech) development on agricultural NPS pollution, the technical level in the model is mainly limited to the FinTech level
The impact of FinTech on agricultural NPS pollution is largely revealed from three aspects

Summary

Introduction

Nonpoint source (NPS) pollution, such as agricultural runoff of nutrients and sediment, is the chief cause of impaired surface water quality today [1,2,3]. A defining characteristic of NPS pollution is its ubiquitous nature [4]. Even though its forms vary throughout the world, NPS pollution is a major global environmental issue. As a matter of fact, due to NPS pollution, hundreds of millions of people suffer from disease, billions of dollars of economic development investments are lost, and trillions of dollars of environmental remediation needs are being accumulated for future generations to address [5]. Controlling agricultural NPS pollution is a key to agricultural transformation and green development in many developing countries. The governments in many countries have begun to pay attention to the environmental issues in agricultural production and modernization

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion