Enhancing Industry Evolution: The Role of Digital Inclusive Finance in Optimizing and Upgrading the Industrial Structure

Abstract

The upgrading of digital inclusive finance has markedly enhanced the financing and operational milieu for small and micro enterprises (SMEs), exerting a pivotal influence on the optimization of the national industrial structure. This paper leverages panel data spanning from 2011 to 2020 across 30 provincial-level administrative regions within China to scrutinize the ramifications of digital inclusive finance on the amelioration and elevation of the industrial framework. It endeavors to assimilate the construct of digital inclusive finance into the analytical paradigm concerning the evolution of industrial structures, embarking on a dual-faceted investigation from both theoretical constructs and empirical evidences to elucidate the dynamics between digital inclusive finance and the upgrading of China’s industrial structure. The empirical outcomes underscore that digital inclusive finance substantially fosters the refinement of the industrial architecture, particularly accentuating its positive leverage on the rationalization of industrial structure. Subsequent explorations reveal a regional heterogeneity in the facilitative effects of digital inclusive finance on industrial structure optimization and upgrading, with more pronounced significances identified within the central and western regions of China. Moreover, it is discerned that divergent domains of digital inclusive finance impart differential impacts on the optimization efficacy of the industrial structure. This discourse not only augments the scholarly dialogue on digital finance and industrial progression but also proffers empirical insights for policy formulations aimed at harnessing digital inclusive finance as a strategic instrument for economic augmentation and industrial sophistication.