Local Bank, Digital Financial Inclusion and SME Financing Constraints: Empirical Evidence from China

Zhiqiang Lu, Junjie Wu, Hongyu Li and Duc Khuong Nguyen

No 2021-008, Working Papers from Department of Research, Ipag Business School

Abstract: This paper investigates the impact of local banks and digital financial inclusion on small and medium enterprise (SME) financing constraints. Using data of Chinese SMEs for the period 2007?2017, our robust results find (1) SMEs financing constraints are negatively associated with the proportion of local bank branches and the degree of digital financial inclusion; (2) the effect of local banks is more pronounced for small, transparent, and firms in the regions less dependent on bank credit; and (3) local bank branches and digital financial inclusion have a substitution effect on alleviating SMEs financial constraints. The findings shed light on how digital finance technologies could influence traditional SME-bank relationship and have important policy and managerial implications.

Keywords: local banks; digital financial inclusion; financing constraints; SMEs; China. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 30 pages
Date: 2021-01-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ban, nep-cfn, nep-cna, nep-ent, nep-fdg, nep-fle, nep-isf, nep-pay and nep-sbm
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (20)

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Journal Article: Local Bank, Digital Financial Inclusion and SME Financing Constraints: Empirical Evidence from China (2022)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ipg:wpaper:2021-008

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