Abstract:
Promoting the steady increase of farmers' income is one of the priorities of the rural revitalization strategy and the innovative development of the digital economy provides new possibilities for this purpose. Therefore, it is necessary to study the impact of digital inclusive finance on farmers' income. From the perspectives of digital infrastructure and urbanization, based on a data of cities from 2011 to 2020 in Guangdong Province, this paper analyzed the effects of digital inclusive finance on farmers' income by the OLS model, quantile regression and adjustment effect model. Results show that digital inclusive finance had a rapid growth trend, the coefficient of variation was gradually decreasing, the development of inter-regional disparities was relatively balanced, the income of rural residents showed a stable growth, the coefficient of variation was at around 0.3, and there was a significant gap between Pearl River Delta and other less economically regions. Digital inclusive finance has effectively promoted farmers' income and had non-linear characteristics with its sub-dimensions. The breadth of coverage, depth of use, and degree of digitalization contributed positively to farmers' income with a gradual diminishing trend. The heterogeneity test showed that the effect was more significant among high-income farmers and in Pearl River Delta region. In addition, the improvement of the digital infrastructure and urbanization level has strengthened the role of digital inclusive finance in promoting farmers' income. Therefore, according to the consideration of helping low-income farmers to achieve common prosperity, this paper provides the following suggestions: actively promoting the development of digital inclusive finance in rural areas, developing digital inclusive finance according to local conditions, improving digital inclusive finance infrastructure in less developed areas, promoting urban-rural integration, and optimally allocating financial resources.