How Can Digital Financial Inclusion Promote High-Quality Agricultural Development? The Multiple-Mediation Model Research

Hua Zhang, Ying Li (), Hanxiaoxue Sun and Xiaohui Wang
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Hua Zhang: Sunwah International Business School, Faculty of Economics, Liaoning University, Shenyang 110136, China
Ying Li: Business School, Faculty of Economics, Liaoning University, Shenyang 100136, China
Hanxiaoxue Sun: School of Public Management, Faculty of Economics, Liaoning University, Shenyang 100136, China
Xiaohui Wang: Sunwah International Business School, Faculty of Economics, Liaoning University, Shenyang 110136, China

IJERPH, 2023, vol. 20, issue 4, 1-19

Abstract: In order to balance the relationship between economics, society and environment, the Chinese government has stated that China’s economy should shift from high-speed growth to high-quality development. Since agriculture is the foundation of the national economy, high-quality development of agriculture plays significant roles in the achievement of food security, social stability and environmental sustainability in China. In practice, the expansion of digital financial inclusion (DFI) seems to provide valuable opportunities for the development of high-quality agriculture. Nevertheless, in theory, the extant literature ignores exploration of the close relationships between DFI and high-quality agricultural development (HQAD). Hence, using Chinese provincial panel data from 2011 to 2020 and structural equation model (SEM) in STATA 16.0, this paper attempts to investigate whether and how DFI can enhance HQAD. Analysis reveals that (1) DFI can directly promote HQAD; (2) DFI can indirectly facilitate HQAD through the mediator of farmland transfer (FLT); (3) DFI can indirectly promote HQAD through the mediator of farmland mechanization level (FML); (4) compared with the benefits brought by “high-mechanization”, the benefits brought by “large-scale” farmland transfer policies are much greater. To our knowledge, our research is one of the first to investigate the direct and indirect effecting mechanisms of DFI’s influence on HQAD from the perspectives of farmland scale and farmland technology.

Keywords: digital financial inclusion; high-quality agricultural development; farmland transfer; farmland mechanization level (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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