Research on the impact of digital inclusive finance on rural human capital accumulation: A case study of China

Abstract

The accumulation of rural human capital is one of the important factors to realize the sustainable development of the rural economy. Digital inclusive finance eases the budget constraints of farmers and affects their willingness and ability to invest in education which improves human capital accumulation. The impact of digital inclusive finance on rural human capital accumulation is strong but complex to determine. Based on the data from 31 provinces of China from 2011 to 2020, this study uses the systematic Generalized Moment Method (GMM) to build an analytical framework to explore the impact mechanism and differences of digital inclusive finance over the rural human capital accumulation regional levels. The study found that with the development of digital inclusive finance and the expansion of the breadth of coverage, and usage of digital inclusive finance can significantly enhance the accumulation of rural human capital. In terms of regional differences, the boosting effect of digital inclusive finance on rural human capital accumulation is greater in the Northeast than that in the Central, Western and Eastern regions of China. The impact of the extent of digital inclusive finance coverage on rural human capital accumulation is significantly greater in Northeast and Eastern regions than in Central and Western regions; the impact of the depth of digital inclusive finance usage on rural human capital accumulation is limited in Central China. Its findings and results can help to further develop digital inclusive finance, particularly for human capital accumulation in rural areas.

Digital village construction, human capital and the development of the rural older adult care service industry

“…The more advanced the level of rural human capital, the more effective the construction of digital villages becomes in advancing the development of rural industrial integration. The result is consistent with the research results of human capital (11,15,50). Given the population outflow in rural areas of China, specifically the youth's migration to urban centers, we confront a growing issue of aging and a dearth of technological literacy.…”

“…In the digital era, human capital emerges as a crucial factor shaping a regional "digital capability divide" and elucidating the impacts of digital empowerment (47)(48)(49). Although digital technology integration into real sectors could potentially stimulate knowledge spillovers, fostering the development of rural human capital (24,50,51), the effects of digital technology diffusion and application in rural areas remain limited. This limitation is largely due to the ongoing "hollowing out" of rural areas in China, in other words, the loss of younger populations due to depopulation or urbanization, which exacerbates the loss of rural human capital.…”

Modified CPT-TODIM method for evaluating the development level of digital inclusive finance under probabilistic hesitant fuzzy environment

“…Inclusive finance bridges the shortcomings of traditional finance, providing not only accessible, affordable, comprehensive and sustainable financial services for the disadvantaged groups who lack financial options, but also more extensive, convenient and affordable financial services for the general population; it not only expands the breadth of financial services coverage, but also extends the depth of high-quality financial services. Its ultimate goal is to support the economic growth of enterprises and households, eliminate poverty and inequality, and expand the scope of financial services so that all groups can receive appropriate financial services that match their own needs, which is a dynamic and changing guide for action and reflects the value pursuit of financial activities [62][63][64][65][66][67]. However, the cost of risk identification, credit records and data acquisition for inclusive finance is high, and the general approach adopted by traditional inclusive finance is often difficult to balance the endogenous requirements of accessibility, affordability, comprehensiveness and commercial sustainability, so for inclusive finance to achieve long-term development, it also needs to find a new breakthrough, so the technology based on digital technology, mobile Internet, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, etc.…”

Can digital financial inclusion help reduce agricultural non-point source pollution?—An empirical analysis from China

“…Existing studies have found that digital financial inclusion plays an important role in rural revitalization. Digital financial inclusion helps to alleviate credit constraints of farmers (FAN, 2021), and reduce their vulnerability (Wang and He, 2020); helps to narrow the urban-rural gap (Ji et al, 2021;Yu and Wang, 2021;Zhao et al, 2022), play an important role in rural economic development (Chen and Zhao, 2021); help promote the accumulation of rural human capital (Li et al, 2022), improve the level of agricultural green development (Guo et al, 2022). There are some results about the role of digital financial inclusion on the environment, e.g.…”