Have enhanced rural financial services promoted the integrated development of agricultural industry? An empirical analysis based on the perspective of regional differences

Under the background that the whole society attaches great importance to the revitalization of rural financial services, it is very important to clarify the impacts of enhanced rural financial services on the integrated development of agricultural industry. Based on an inter-provincial panel data of China from 2008 to 2017 and applying the FGLS method and the SYS-GMM method, this paper systematically investigated the influence of enhanced rural financial services on the integrated development of agricultural industry and its regional differences. Results showed that enhanced rural financial services and the integrated development of agricultural industry increased from 1.029 5 and 1.039 3 in 2008 to 2.717 4 and 2.604 8 in 2017, with average annual growth rates of 11.39% and 10.75%, respectively. Enhanced rural financial services have significantly promoted the integrated development of agricultural industry in China. And there were obvious regional differences in this kind of influence. Compared with the central and western regions, the effect of enhanced rural financial services on the integrated development of agricultural industry is more significant in the eastern region. In addition, this study also found that the differences among enhanced rural financial services, rural human capital, and transportation infrastructure in different regions are important reasons for the regional differences in the impacts of enhanced rural financial services on the integrated development of agricultural industry. Therefore, the paper provides some policy suggestions, including to increase the financial supply for the integrated development of agricultural industry and to implement the promotion policies of the integrated development of agricultural industry according to local conditions.