IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/finlet/v79y2025ics1544612325004921.html

Fintech and low-carbon urban development

Author

Listed:
  • Zeng, Ting
  • Jiang, Yuan

Abstract

This study examines financial technology's (FinTech) influence on urban low-carbon development among 276 Chinese cities (2008–2023). Using a dual fixed-effects model, FinTech's positive influence on green total factor energy efficiency is established. Green innovation mediates this relationship while transforming financial capabilities into environmental upgrading. Government environmental consideration strengthens FinTech's effectiveness, establishing background contingency. Heterogeneity analysis shows differential impacts across geographical locales, administrative prestige, and economic forms, with resource-based cities benefiting considerably. The findings improve the theoretical understanding of technology–sustainability relationships, providing practical guidance for incorporating FinTech into distinguished urban sustainability strategies.

Suggested Citation

  • Zeng, Ting & Jiang, Yuan, 2025. "Fintech and low-carbon urban development," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:finlet:v:79:y:2025:i:c:s1544612325004921
    DOI: 10.1016/j.frl.2025.107229
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1544612325004921
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.frl.2025.107229?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Dai, Jiapeng & Mehmood, Usman & Nassani, Abdelmohsen A., 2025. "Empowering sustainability through energy efficiency, green innovations, and the sharing economy: Insights from G7 economies," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 318(C).
    2. Tiwari, Sunil, 2024. "Impact of Fintech on natural resources management: How financial impacts shape the association?," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    3. Khan, Imran & Khan, Inayat & Ikram, Rana Muhammad Adnan & Ali, Mohammad Ajmal, 2024. "Integrating FinTech with Industry 4.0 for sustainable mineral resource management: Exploring the interplay of technology, regulation, and economic dynamics," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    4. Zhu, Lin & Luo, Jian & Dong, Qingli & Zhao, Yang & Wang, Yunyue & Wang, Yong, 2021. "Green technology innovation efficiency of energy-intensive industries in China from the perspective of shared resources: Dynamic change and improvement path," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 170(C).
    5. Liu, Jiangtao & Zhang, Yi & Kuang, Jia, 2023. "Fintech development and green innovation: Evidence from China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 183(C).
    6. Wu, Jianan & Guo, Cheng & Liu, Xiaojing & Dai, Jiapeng, 2025. "Policy-driven employment structure transformation: The role of innovation and education investment," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    7. Dai, Jiapeng, 2025. "Is policy pilot a viable path to sustainable development? Attention allocation perspective," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    8. Rainer Alt & Roman Beck & Martin T. Smits, 2018. "FinTech and the transformation of the financial industry," Electronic Markets, Springer;IIM University of St. Gallen, vol. 28(3), pages 235-243, August.
    9. Wang, Zhen & Huang, Yaoxuan & Ankrah, Victoria & Dai, Jiapeng, 2023. "Greening the knowledge-based economies: Harnessing natural resources and innovation in information and communication technologies for green growth," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 86(PA).
    10. Gong, Qinyi & Ying, Limeng & Dai, Jiapeng, 2023. "Green finance and energy natural resources nexus with economic performance: A novel evidence from China," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    11. Voinov, Alexey & Farley, Joshua, 2007. "Reconciling sustainability, systems theory and discounting," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(1), pages 104-113, June.
    12. Mulugetta, Yacob & Urban, Frauke, 2010. "Deliberating on low carbon development," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(12), pages 7546-7549, December.
    13. Wu, Haitao & Hao, Yu & Ren, Siyu & Yang, Xiaodong & Xie, Guo, 2021. "Does internet development improve green total factor energy efficiency? Evidence from China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 153(C).
    14. Xie, Rui & Fu, Wei & Yao, Siling & Zhang, Qi, 2021. "Effects of financial agglomeration on green total factor productivity in Chinese cities: Insights from an empirical spatial Durbin model," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 101(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Wang, Fei & Guan, Guofeng & Wang, Qi, 2026. "Green financing the future: How smart cities transform China's carbon emissions landscape," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 105(C).
    2. Liu, Meiyu & Duan, Hongli & Cui, Huiru, 2025. "Policy incentives and collaborative diffusion of urban green innovation: Based on the green credit subsidy policy," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 2520-2533.
    3. Guo, Yun & Hu, Ke, 2026. "Does the clean energy transition enhance economic sustainability? A study on energy use efficiency in developing countries," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    4. Lin, Tianchen & Yang, Haolong, 2025. "How does urban digital finance drive low-carbon development? evidence from China’s green transition," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 86(PF).
    5. Zhao, Fang & Merajuddin, Shaheem Sayed & Liu, Fanqi & Xu, Yi & Zhang, Yun, 2025. "Racing toward tourism sustainability: A spatial-temporal analysis," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 105(C).
    6. Name, Author & Liu, Hongjiao, 2025. "The impact of job quality on household risky financial asset allocation," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 106(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Li, Pengcheng & Chen, Yanbing & Guo, Xiaochuan, 2025. "Digital transformation and supply chain resilience," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    2. Xing, Manjiang & Gong, Chi & Moon, Gyu-Hyen & Ge, Xiaohong, 2025. "Digital economy, dual innovation capability and enterprise labor productivity," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 101(C).
    3. Bu, Wei & Yan, Zhongyi & Yang, Shuning, 2025. "Digital economy and corporate sustainability: Mediating roles of green innovation and risk-taking," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    4. Wang, Zheng & Liu, Hongchao, 2025. "Can intelligent transformation enhance corporate green innovation performance?," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    5. Ye, Lin, 2025. "Digital economy and high-quality agricultural development," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    6. Liu, Yuanyang & Tian, Xuemei & Long, Yang, 2025. "Digital economy and corporate ESG performance: Cost reduction or efficiency improvement?," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    7. Meiwen, Su & Ming, Ji & Mengyu, Li, 2025. "Education, technology and high-quality economic development," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).
    8. Tang, Meihuan, 2025. "Data element utilization and firm value," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).
    9. Wang, Zhenzhen & Jia, Junting, 2025. "Digital transformation and organizational resilience," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    10. Liu, Qiong & Wang, Hairong, 2025. "Digital transformation, innovation capability, and ESG performance," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    11. Kang, Shuhao & Geng, Wei, 2025. "Green finance innovation and high-quality economic development: Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    12. Yan, Nan & Xue, Yuhang & Xu, Menghan & Sun, Yige & Yang, Yun, 2025. "Sentiment tendency of ESG coverage, public concern, and corporate environmental performance," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    13. Wang, Linjing & Zhao, Chunyan & Gan, Yufei & Ni, Xiaoxiao, 2025. "Financial flexibility, organizational resilience and corporate green innovation," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    14. Chen, Shi & Liu, Zhongyi & Cai, Wanlin, 2025. "Digital transformation and tax compliance in Chinese industrial sector," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).
    15. Chen, Zhiang & Xing, Ruikun, 2025. "Digital economy, green innovation and high-quality economic development," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    16. Zheng, Ye & Bao, Xuhan & Zhao, Shijie, 2025. "Renewable energy policy and environmental governance performance," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    17. Ruanzhou, Yilong & Guo, Rengui, 2025. "New quality productivity and intellectual property protection," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    18. Lan, Bo & Li, Nan & Liu, Tong, 2025. "How do economic growth and unemployment affect green development in Latin America nations?," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    19. Liu, Sihan, 2025. "Digital transformation–productivity nexus: Platform integration and enterprise performance," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    20. Tan, Yingxue & Lin, Bo & Wang, Leyi, 2025. "Green finance and corporate environmental performance," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:finlet:v:79:y:2025:i:c:s1544612325004921. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/frl .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.