Impact of Digital Inclusive Finance on the Integration of Urban and Rural Capital Factors in Counties:Based on the Perspective of New Binary Transformation
The integration of urban and rural areas within a county is a regionally balanced development path with important Chinese characteristics under the background of the rural revitalization strategy.Due to the differences in traditional informal institutions and comparative advantages of factors,the focus of urban-rural integration is not on the consistency of governance structure and industrial form but on the construction of a unified large market for the flow and exchange of factors and products under the influence of market mechanisms.Considering the core position of finance in the economy,the urban-rural flow of financial resources is a key component of this process.Unlike the assumption of a one-way capital flow from rural to urban areas in traditional binary economic models,this study investigates the rapidly developing digital finance in recent years and obtains some significant conclusions and inspirations on the mechanism and role of promoting the flow of urban capital to rural areas.This study first constructs a credit allocation model for rural financial markets under the dual economic environment of urban and rural areas.Using this model,it explains the conditions under which digital inclusive finance promotes the flow of urban funds to rural areas.The core logic of the reverse flow mechanism of funds between urban and rural areas is that the initial rural credit market was a market with severe friction,but in rural areas,the exclusive information of community capital can be used to weaken this financial friction.At this time,the funding source for rural areas can only be within the department.For external departments such as cities,the marginal risk return of rural investment is difficult to offset loan costs.This means that although it is marginally feasible for farmers to use their savings internally,there is an insufficient supply of funds within rural areas,and the flow of funds from urban sectors to rural areas needs to meet a probability risk threshold of an independent investment project success.The development of digital finance will improve the quality of rural credit markets,allowing the risk return rate of investment projects to exceed the critical threshold,thereby achieving the flow of funds from urban sectors to rural areas.The empirical testing of the hypotheses derived from the theoretical model leads to the following four main conclusions.First,utilizing digital finance to improve rural financial markets is of fundamental importance in promoting the flow of funds from cities to rural areas in a county.Second,there are differences in the effectiveness of digital financial indicators across different dimensions.Compared with the breadth of coverage and degree of digitization,improving the depth of digital finance can better alleviate the financing constraints of farmers by promoting the transfer of capital to rural areas,and there may be a threshold for the flow of urban funds to rural areas.Third,the sustainable driving mechanism of digital finance in promoting the transfer of capital to rural areas is the increase in marginal returns on rural investment induced by the weakening of friction between digital finance and rural financial markets.In addition,there are differences in the effectiveness of the three types of agricultural exogenous policies,among which the government's intervention in guarantee policies has the strongest effect,while the fiscal or financial support policies for rural financial institutions have the weakest effect.Fourth,the effectiveness of digital finance in promoting capital to rural areas is influenced by heterogeneous factors such as farmer types and regions.In areas with a high proportion of non-agricultural income,a relatively low level of absolute economic development,and a large income gap between urban and rural residents,digital inclusive finance has a more significant effect on relaxing financing constraints for farmers by promoting the transfer of capital to rural areas.This study has the following policy implications.First,it vigorously promotes the development of digital inclusive finance in rural areas and accelerates the cultivation of endogenous driving mechanisms for capital to move to rural areas.Second,it is necessary to consider the classification and implementation of county-level urban-rural integration policies,and the implementation of policies should not be uniform.In developed areas,urban-rural integration should be achieved through large-scale market integration mechanisms.Third,accelerate the digital transformation of the traditional financial industry,build a new digital inclusive financial service system with a reasonable structure and efficient functions,comprehensively improve the ability of financial services to serve the real economy,and help achieve the strategic goals of common prosperity and rural revitalization in the new era.
Digital Inclusive FinanceCounty-level Urban-rural IntegrationSavings FlowFinancing Constraints