IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/finana/v95y2024ipbs1057521924003740.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Digital finance and industrial structure upgrading: Evidence from Chinese counties

Author

Listed:
  • Shen, Hongshan
  • Qin, Mengyao
  • Li, Tianyi
  • Zhang, Xuan
  • Zhao, Yang

Abstract

The county-level economy holds the potential for future economic growth in China, but traditional finance faces challenges in meeting the needs of county-level economic development and industrial structure upgrading. Digital finance plays a vital role in addressing the challenges faced in county-level development. This study empirically examines the impact and underlying mechanisms of digital finance on industrial structure upgrading using panel data from 1385 counties in China from 2014 to 2020. The empirical results indicate that the development of digital finance significantly promotes industrial structure upgrading, and this finding holds even after conducting a series of robustness tests. Mechanism analysis suggests that digital finance stimulates industrial structure upgrading in the county by fostering entrepreneurial activity and promoting social consumption. Cross-sectional analysis further reveals that the impact of digital finance is more pronounced in regions with lower levels of traditional finance development and efficiency, as well as lower levels of economic development. Additionally, the influence of digital finance diminishes from central to eastern and western regions of China.

Suggested Citation

  • Shen, Hongshan & Qin, Mengyao & Li, Tianyi & Zhang, Xuan & Zhao, Yang, 2024. "Digital finance and industrial structure upgrading: Evidence from Chinese counties," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 95(PB).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:finana:v:95:y:2024:i:pb:s1057521924003740
    DOI: 10.1016/j.irfa.2024.103442
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1057521924003740
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.irfa.2024.103442?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 search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Yin, Zhichao & Gong, Xue & Guo, Peiyao & Wu, Tao, 2019. "What Drives Entrepreneurship in Digital Economy? Evidence from China," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 66-73.
    2. Wang, Jianda & Dong, Kangyin & Dong, Xiucheng & Taghizadeh-Hesary, Farhad, 2022. "Assessing the digital economy and its carbon-mitigation effects: The case of China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 113(C).
    3. Wang, Weiwei & Gao, Pengpeng & Wang, Jiahaoran, 2023. "Nexus among digital inclusive finance and carbon neutrality: Evidence from company-level panel data analysis," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    4. Lars-Hendrik Roller & Leonard Waverman, 2001. "Telecommunications Infrastructure and Economic Development: A Simultaneous Approach," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 91(4), pages 909-923, September.
    5. Pengpeng Yue & Aslihan Gizem Korkmaz & Zhichao Yin & Haigang Zhou, 2022. "The rise of digital finance: Financial inclusion or debt trap," Papers 2201.09221, arXiv.org.
    6. Da Rin, Marco & Hellmann, Thomas, 2002. "Banks as Catalysts for Industrialization," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 11(4), pages 366-397, October.
    7. Zhou, Linjiang & Shi, Xiaochuan & Bao, Yaxiong & Gao, Lihua & Ma, Chao, 2023. "Explainable artificial intelligence for digital finance and consumption upgrading," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 58(PC).
    8. Du, Kerui & Cheng, Yuanyuan & Yao, Xin, 2021. "Environmental regulation, green technology innovation, and industrial structure upgrading: The road to the green transformation of Chinese cities," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    9. Juliane Begenau & Maryam Farboodi & Laura Veldkamp, 2018. "Big Data in Finance and the Growth of Large Firms," Working Papers 18-08, New York University, Leonard N. Stern School of Business, Department of Economics.
    10. Juliane Begenau & Maryam Farboodi & Laura Veldkamp, 2018. "Big Data in Finance and the Growth of Large Firms," NBER Working Papers 24550, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Zoltán J. Ács & Pontus Braunerhjelm & David B. Audretsch & Bo Carlsson, 2015. "The knowledge spillover theory of entrepreneurship," Chapters, in: Global Entrepreneurship, Institutions and Incentives, chapter 7, pages 129-144, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    12. Buchak, Greg & Matvos, Gregor & Piskorski, Tomasz & Seru, Amit, 2018. "Fintech, regulatory arbitrage, and the rise of shadow banks," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 130(3), pages 453-483.
    13. Song, Yan & Zhang, Xiao & Zhang, Ming, 2021. "The influence of environmental regulation on industrial structure upgrading: Based on the strategic interaction behavior of environmental regulation among local governments," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 170(C).
    14. Jeffrey M Wooldridge, 2010. "Econometric Analysis of Cross Section and Panel Data," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 2, volume 1, number 0262232588, December.
    15. Sun, Yang & Tang, Xinwei, 2022. "The impact of digital inclusive finance on sustainable economic growth in China," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 50(C).
    16. Thorsten Beck & Ross Levine & Alexey Levkov, 2010. "Big Bad Banks? The Winners and Losers from Bank Deregulation in the United States," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 65(5), pages 1637-1667, October.
    17. Yang, Junhong & Wu, Yu & Huang, Bihong, 2023. "Digital finance and financial literacy: Evidence from Chinese households," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 156(C).
    18. Pan, Wenrong & Xie, Tao & Wang, Zhuwang & Ma, Lisha, 2022. "Digital economy: An innovation driver for total factor productivity," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 303-311.
    19. William Jack & Tavneet Suri, 2014. "Risk Sharing and Transactions Costs: Evidence from Kenya's Mobile Money Revolution," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 104(1), pages 183-223, January.
    20. Lin, Chen & Ma, Chicheng & Sun, Yuchen & Xu, Yuchen, 2021. "The telegraph and modern banking development, 1881–1936," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 141(2), pages 730-749.
    21. Juliane Begenau & Laura Veldkamp & Maryam Farboodi, 2018. "Big Data in Finance and the Growth of Large Firms," 2018 Meeting Papers 155, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    22. Qin, Xiaodi & Wu, Haitao & Li, Rongrong, 2022. "Digital finance and household carbon emissions in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    23. Berger, Allen N, 2003. "The Economic Effects of Technological Progress: Evidence from the Banking Industry," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 35(2), pages 141-176, April.
    24. Yan, Bin & Wang, Feng & Chen, Tian & Liu, Siyu & Bai, Xiaoxuan, 2023. "Digital finance, environmental regulation and emission reduction in manufacturing industry: New evidence incorporating dynamic spatial-temporal correlation and competition," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 750-763.
    25. Winifred Huang & Michele Meoli & Silvio Vismara, 2020. "The geography of initial coin offerings," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 55(1), pages 77-102, June.
    26. Lee, Chien-Chiang & Wang, Fuhao, 2022. "How does digital inclusive finance affect carbon intensity?," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 174-190.
    27. Zhou, Zhongsheng & Li, Zhuo, 2023. "Corporate digital transformation and trade credit financing," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 160(C).
    28. Rui Li & Jing Rao & Liangyong Wan, 2022. "The digital economy, enterprise digital transformation, and enterprise innovation," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 43(7), pages 2875-2886, October.
    29. Wu, Ning & Liu, ZuanKuo, 2021. "Higher education development, technological innovation and industrial structure upgrade," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 162(C).
    30. Ma, Dan & Zhu, Qing, 2022. "Innovation in emerging economies: Research on the digital economy driving high-quality green development," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 801-813.
    31. R. Canan Savaskan & Shantanu Bhattacharya & Luk N. Van Wassenhove, 2004. "Closed-Loop Supply Chain Models with Product Remanufacturing," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 50(2), pages 239-252, February.
    32. Scott Shane & Daniel Cable, 2002. "Network Ties, Reputation, and the Financing of New Ventures," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 48(3), pages 364-381, March.
    33. Nambisan, Satish & Wright, Mike & Feldman, Maryann, 2019. "The digital transformation of innovation and entrepreneurship: Progress, challenges and key themes," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(8), pages 1-1.
    34. Wu, Yilin & Huang, Shilei, 2022. "The effects of digital finance and financial constraint on financial performance: Firm-level evidence from China's new energy enterprises," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 112(C).
    35. Robert A. Baron & Michael D. Ensley, 2006. "Opportunity Recognition as the Detection of Meaningful Patterns: Evidence from Comparisons of Novice and Experienced Entrepreneurs," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 52(9), pages 1331-1344, September.
    36. Wang, Qiang & Wu, Shi-dai & Zeng, Yue-e & Wu, Bo-wei, 2016. "Exploring the relationship between urbanization, energy consumption, and CO2 emissions in different provinces of China," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 1563-1579.
    37. Hsu, Po-Hsuan & Tian, Xuan & Xu, Yan, 2014. "Financial development and innovation: Cross-country evidence," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 112(1), pages 116-135.
    38. Lu, Xiaomeng & Zhang, Xianjun & Guo, Jiaojiao & Yue, Pengpeng, 2024. "Digital finance era: Will individual investors become better players?," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    39. Jingrong Li & Bowen Li, 2022. "Digital inclusive finance and urban innovation: Evidence from China," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(2), pages 1010-1034, May.
    40. Hasan, Iftekhar & (Stan) Hoi, Chun-Keung & Wu, Qiang & Zhang, Hao, 2020. "Is social capital associated with corporate innovation? Evidence from publicly listed firms in the U.S," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    41. Ji, Yu & Shi, Lina & Zhang, Shunming, 2022. "Digital finance and corporate bankruptcy risk: Evidence from China," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    42. Jinlin Li & Litai Chen & Ying Chen & Jiawen He, 2022. "Digital economy, technological innovation, and green economic efficiency—Empirical evidence from 277 cities in China," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 43(3), pages 616-629, April.
    43. Li, Jie & Wu, Yu & Xiao, Jing Jian, 2020. "The impact of digital finance on household consumption: Evidence from China," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 317-326.
    44. Lin, Ying & Yan, Xiaohan & Yang, Xiuyun, 2023. "Digital finance and enterprise investment efficiency in China," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    45. Huo, Da & Zhang, Xiaotao & Meng, Shuang & Wu, Gang & Li, Junhang & Di, Ruoqi, 2022. "Green finance and energy efficiency: Dynamic study of the spatial externality of institutional support in a digital economy by using hidden Markov chain," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 116(C).
    46. Wang, Di & Ren, Cairu & Zhou, Tao, 2021. "Understanding the impact of land finance on industrial structure change in China: Insights from a spatial econometric analysis," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    47. Wang, Xiong & Wang, Xiao & Ren, Xiaohang & Wen, Fenghua, 2022. "Can digital financial inclusion affect CO2 emissions of China at the prefecture level? Evidence from a spatial econometric approach," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 109(C).
    48. Wu, Kai & Lu, Yufei, 2023. "Corporate digital transformation and financialization: Evidence from Chinese listed firms," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 57(C).
    49. Shen, Yuchen & Ren, Xiaoping, 2023. "Digital finance and upgrading of industrial structure: Prefecture-level evidence from China," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 55(PB).
    50. Yue, Pengpeng & Korkmaz, Aslihan Gizem & Yin, Zhichao & Zhou, Haigang, 2022. "The rise of digital finance: Financial inclusion or debt trap?," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 47(PA).
    51. Hao, Jing & Peng, Mengzu & He, Wenjia, 2023. "Digital finance development and bank liquidity creation," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    52. Wu, Bangzheng & Yang, Weiguo, 2022. "Empirical test of the impact of the digital economy on China's employment structure," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 49(C).
    53. Guo, Bingnan & Wang, Yu & Zhang, Hao & Liang, Chunyan & Feng, Yu & Hu, Feng, 2023. "Impact of the digital economy on high-quality urban economic development: Evidence from Chinese cities," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).
    54. Mingfeng Lin & Nagpurnanand R. Prabhala & Siva Viswanathan, 2013. "Judging Borrowers by the Company They Keep: Friendship Networks and Information Asymmetry in Online Peer-to-Peer Lending," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 59(1), pages 17-35, August.
    55. Li, Guoxiang & Wu, Haoyue & Jiang, Jieshu & Zong, Qingqing, 2023. "Digital finance and the low-carbon energy transition (LCET) from the perspective of capital-biased technical progress," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).
    56. Silvio Vismara, 2016. "Equity retention and social network theory in equity crowdfunding," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 46(4), pages 579-590, April.
    57. Zhang, Yue & Ge, Mengshuai & Yang, Jiaju & Liu, Cuiying & Chen, Xi, 2023. "Controlling shareholders' equity pledge, digital finance, and corporate digital transformation," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    58. Jiang, Mingrui & Luo, Sumei & Zhou, Guangyou, 2020. "Financial development, OFDI spillovers and upgrading of industrial structure," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 155(C).
    59. Sun, Guanglin & Li, Ting & Ai, Yongfang & Li, Qinghai, 2023. "Digital finance and corporate financial fraud," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    60. Wu, Linfei & Sun, Liwen & Qi, Peixiao & Ren, Xiangwei & Sun, Xiaoting, 2021. "Energy endowment, industrial structure upgrading, and CO2 emissions in China: Revisiting resource curse in the context of carbon emissions," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 74(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. Zijing Hu & Bowen Li & Guanyu Guo & Yuan Tian & Yue Zhang & Chengming Li, 2024. "Unlocking the Power of Economic Agglomeration: How Digital Finance Enhances Urban Land Use Efficiency Through Innovation Ability and Rationalization of Industrial Structure in China," Land, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-26, October.

    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. Luo, Sumei & Sun, Yongkun & Yang, Fan & Zhou, Guangyou, 2022. "Does fintech innovation promote enterprise transformation? Evidence from China," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    2. Jin, Laiqun & Dai, Jiaying & Jiang, Weijie & Cao, Kairui, 2023. "Digital finance and misallocation of resources among firms: Evidence from China," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    3. Wang, Bing & Liu, Yanyan & Yang, Xiangyu, 2024. "Digital economy and urban entrepreneurial activity," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    4. Luo, Sumei & Sun, Yongkun & Zhou, Rui, 2022. "Can fintech innovation promote household consumption? Evidence from China family panel studies," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    5. Gao, Qiang & Sun, Mengyuan & Chen, Lu, 2024. "The impact of digital inclusive finance on agricultural economic resilience," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    6. Wen Chen & Changyi Zhu & Qi Cheung & Siying Wu & Jun Zhang & Jia Cao, 2024. "How does digitization enable green innovation? Evidence from Chinese listed companies," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(5), pages 3832-3854, July.
    7. Lee, Chien-Chiang & Tang, Manting & Lee, Chi-Chuan, 2023. "Reaping digital dividends: Digital inclusive finance and high-quality development of enterprises in China," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(2).
    8. Dian, Jie & Song, Tian & Li, Shenglan, 2024. "Facilitating or inhibiting? Spatial effects of the digital economy affecting urban green technology innovation," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 129(C).
    9. Yang, Xiuyun & Li, Min & Liang, Shanshan, 2024. "How consumers’ digital engagement affects regional innovation capacity in China?," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 139(C).
    10. Dongjing Chen & Xiaotong Guo, 2023. "Impact of the Digital Economy and Financial Development on Residents’ Consumption Upgrading: Evidence from Mainland China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(10), pages 1-25, May.
    11. Guo, Bingnan & Wang, Yu & Zhang, Hao & Liang, Chunyan & Feng, Yu & Hu, Feng, 2023. "Impact of the digital economy on high-quality urban economic development: Evidence from Chinese cities," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).
    12. Zhao, Xiaoyang & Weng, Zongyuan, 2024. "Digital dividend or divide: The digital economy and urban entrepreneurial activity," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    13. Shangui Peng & Jian Wang & Hao Sun & Zhengning Guo, 2022. "How Does the Spatial Misallocation of Land Resources Affect Urban Industrial Transformation and Upgrading? Evidence from China," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(10), pages 1-22, September.
    14. Shang, Rui & Wang, Yan, 2024. "Digital finance development and equalization of educational opportunities: An empirical analysis based on CFPS panel data," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    15. Khalid, Fahad & Irfan, Muhammad & Srivastava, Mohit, 2024. "The impact of digital inclusive finance on ESG disputes: Evidence from Chinese non-financial listed companies," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 204(C).
    16. Yiqun Hu & Xiong Dai & Li Zhao, 2022. "Digital Finance, Environmental Regulation, and Green Technology Innovation: An Empirical Study of 278 Cities in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(14), pages 1-17, July.
    17. Cao, Lei & Wang, Guosong, 2024. "Impact of digital finance on agricultural output: From the perspective of digital development of agriculture," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    18. Zhi Su & Ruijie Cao, 2023. "Impact of Digital Inclusive Finance on Urban Carbon Emission Intensity: From the Perspective of Green and Low-Carbon Travel and Clean Energy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(16), pages 1-16, August.
    19. Wang, Jianqiu & Yin, Zhichao & Jiang, Jialing, 2023. "The effect of the digital divide on household consumption in China," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    20. Wang, Yizi & Li, Lanyi, 2024. "Digital economy, industrial structure upgrading, and residents' consumption: Empirical evidence from prefecture-level cities in China," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 1045-1058.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Digital finance; Industrial structure upgrading; County-level economy;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L16 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Industrial Organization and Macroeconomics; Macroeconomic Industrial Structure
    • R51 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Regional Government Analysis - - - Finance in Urban and Rural Economies

    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:finana:v:95:y:2024:i:pb:s1057521924003740. 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/inca/620166 .

    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.