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Does digital finance reduce the employment in the finance industry? Evidence from China

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  • Deng, Jiapin
  • Liu, Yanchu

Abstract

Finance has long been a popular major in college education, but the development of digital finance raises the concern about job losses in the finance industry. Using novel panel datasets from China, we document robust city-level evidence that digital finance significantly reduces the employment in the finance industry. Moreover, we find that the labor efficiency in the finance industry increases with the intensity of digital finance, which supports the argument of technological unemployment. Our analysis suggests that more attention should be paid to the potential unbalance between the labor demand and supply in the finance industry.

Suggested Citation

  • Deng, Jiapin & Liu, Yanchu, 2022. "Does digital finance reduce the employment in the finance industry? Evidence from China," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 48(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:finlet:v:48:y:2022:i:c:s1544612322002409
    DOI: 10.1016/j.frl.2022.102994
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    Cited by:

    1. Mu, Weiwei & Liu, Kefu & Tao, Yunqing & Ye, Yongwei, 2023. "Digital finance and corporate ESG," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 51(C).
    2. Elshandidy, Tamer & Ahmed, Yousry, 2023. "Stock price informativeness of risk disclosure: Does time orientation matter?," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 149-162.
    3. Haibo Lei & Qin Su, 2023. "Does the Use of Digital Finance Affect Household Farmland Transfer-Out?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(16), pages 1-18, August.
    4. Guo, Xiaohong & Tu, Yongqian, 2023. "How digital finance affects carbon intensity–The moderating role of financial supervision," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 55(PA).
    5. Geng Tian, 2022. "Influence of Digital Finance on Household Leverage Ratio from the Perspective of Consumption Effect and Income Effect," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(23), pages 1-11, December.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Digital finance; Employment; Technological unemployment; Finance industry;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E24 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution; Aggregate Human Capital; Aggregate Labor Productivity
    • G29 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Other
    • J21 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Force and Employment, Size, and Structure
    • A22 - General Economics and Teaching - - Economic Education and Teaching of Economics - - - Undergraduate

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