EconPapers    
Economics at your fingertips  
 

Impact of Digital Financial Inclusion on Consumption Inequality in China

Juan Luo (melanie_lj8@163.com) and Bao-zhen Li (2353876321@qq.com)
Additional contact information
Juan Luo: Hunan Normal University
Bao-zhen Li: Hunan Normal University

Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, 2022, vol. 163, issue 2, No 2, 529-553

Abstract: Abstract In this paper, we investigate the effect of digital finance inclusion (DFI) on household consumption inequality in China. Based on the biennial panel data of China Household Finance Survey from 2015 to 2017 and the county-level DFI index, we empirically analyze the impact of DFI on consumption inequality by using fixed effect model. We find that the development of DFI can significantly reduce the consumption inequality among residents. This is partly because DFI can reduce the income inequality among residents. And the development of DFI has different marginal impact on consumption expenditure for different residents, thus leading to the reduction of the residents consumption gap. We also find that, compared to the extensive usage and the degree of digitization, the intensive usage of DFI has larger effects on lowering consumption inequality. In addition, the effects of DFI on consumption inequality have significant heterogeneity, and they are relatively larger for residents in eastern regions, and for households with low debt-to-income ratios and for individuals with compulsory education. Therefore, it is necessary to attach importance to supporting construction in the western region when coordinating the development of digital inclusive finance. It is important to strengthen policy preference for residents with lower education levels in terms of school compulsory education and community public welfare education. Meanwhile, when developing the digital financial inclusion, we should focus on controlling the household debt-to-income ratio to prevent excessive debt growth.

Keywords: Digital financial inclusion; Consumption inequality; Income inequality; Kakwani index (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (23)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11205-022-02909-6 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:soinre:v:163:y:2022:i:2:d:10.1007_s11205-022-02909-6

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/11135

DOI: 10.1007/s11205-022-02909-6

Access Statistics for this article

Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement is currently edited by Filomena Maggino

More articles in Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla (sonal.shukla@springer.com) and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (indexing@springernature.com).

 
Page updated 2024-12-29
Handle: RePEc:spr:soinre:v:163:y:2022:i:2:d:10.1007_s11205-022-02909-6