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The impact of digital inclusive finance on green economic efficiency: Pathways to inclusive sustainability

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  • Zhou, Yuanxiang
  • Liu, Huayan
  • Chen, Chan
  • Ma, Yingqi

Abstract

Digital inclusive finance plays a crucial role in China's financial supply-side structural reform, offering new opportunities to foster economic development, achieve inclusive growth, and ensure sustainability. Using panel data from Chinese counties between 2014 and 2022, this paper employs the super-efficiency EBM model with undesirable outputs to measure green economic efficiency and empirically examines the impact of digital inclusive finance on it. The results indicate that the development of digital inclusive finance positively influences the growth of green economic efficiency in China, and the conclusion remains robust after various robustness tests. Heterogeneity analysis reveals significant regional differences in the impact of digital inclusive finance on urban green economic efficiency, depending on factors such as development scale, geographic location, and the implementation of digital rural policies. Notably, the effect is more pronounced in medium-sized regions, and in areas without digital rural pilot policies, the promotion of digital inclusive finance has a more substantial impact on enhancing green economic efficiency. Further mechanism analysis demonstrates that digital inclusive finance and its sub-dimensions enhance green economic efficiency by alleviating enterprise financing constraints, fostering technological innovation, and upgrading industrial structures. This study provides new insights into the relationship between digital finance and green economic efficiency, offering policy recommendations for sustainable development.

Suggested Citation

  • Zhou, Yuanxiang & Liu, Huayan & Chen, Chan & Ma, Yingqi, 2025. "The impact of digital inclusive finance on green economic efficiency: Pathways to inclusive sustainability," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:riibaf:v:76:y:2025:i:c:s0275531925001138
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ribaf.2025.102857
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