The Impact of Digital Inclusive Finance on Agricultural Green Total Factor Productivity: A Study Based on China’s Provinces

Abstract

Digital inclusive finance is key to China’s agriculture and low-carbon economics. The panel data for China’s 30 provinces were chosen from 2011 to 2019. An SBM GML model was applied in the thesis to measure agricultural green total factor productivity (GTFP), and to determine how Digital Inclusive Finance would affect agricultural GTFP a two-way fixed effect model was created. This study found that, from 2011 to 2019, the advancement of Digital Inclusive Finance could effectively enhance and drive the continuous increase of agricultural GTFP in China. Specifically, agricultural GTFP is increased by 0.288% as a result of every 1% rise in the Digital Inclusive Finance index; Digital Inclusive Finance helps agricultural green technologies advance and become more effective. According to a mechanism test, Digital Inclusive Finance increases agricultural GTFP growth by improving green technology innovation. Further analysis shows that the development of agricultural GTFP is significantly related to the depth and digitalization of Digital Inclusive Finance, but not in terms of its breadth. The above findings provide new ideas and empirical evidence for revealing the connection among Digital Inclusive Finance and agricultural GTFP and, on this basis, designing and improving relevant policies.