Rural financial institutions, access to credit and production inputs of rural households

This paper studies the impact of rural financial institutions on farmers' production input from the perspective of rural bank branch adjustment and rural household credit access. Based on the data of rural bank outlets and China Household Income Survey (CHIP) in 293 prefecture-level cities in China from 2013 to 2018, the results show that rural financial outlets have a significant positive impact on farmers' production input, and each unit increase in the number of bank outlets will increase farmers' production input by 0.24 units, and the proportion of consumer expenditure will decrease by 0.071 units. The number of bank outlets has significant heterogeneity of household head and region on the production input of farmers, and the bank outlets have a greater impact on the production input of farmers with high education level. The increase in the number of bank outlets in the eastern region can significantly increase the production input of farmers, but the increase in the number of bank outlets in the central and western regions will reduce the production input of farmers. The mechanism analysis shows that the increase of branches of rural financial institutions improves farmers' access to credit, which is an important channel affecting farmers' production input. This study provides a reference for the reform of rural financial institutions and the revitalization of rural industries in China.