The Impact Of Digital Inclusive Finance On Farmers’ Income

In 2022,“No.1 Central Document” made a deployment requirement for farmers’ employment and farmers’ income growth.For a long time,promoting the steady growth of farmers’ income has been a hot topic in the field of national economy and people’s livelihood,and it is also the central task of the work of "agriculture,rural areas and farmers".In recent years,the government continues to provide financial subsidies to the "three rural" fields through social security,transfer payment and taxation,so as to ensure the basic income of farmers and improve the economic conditions in poor areas.Although these income guarantee mechanisms have achieved certain results,there is still a large gap between rural regional economic development and residents’ income level compared with urban areas.At this stage,China’s economic development had entered a “new normal”,the economic growth rate is down,and the employment of farmers was more severe.In addition,the "floor" of agricultural production costs had risen,and the "ceiling" of agricultural product prices had fallen.These two factors had dealt a heavy blow to farmers’ enthusiasm for growing grain,and farmers’ income was facing great challenges.The sudden COVID-19 also had a negative impact on Farmers’ income.Under the background of the rise of the third scientific and technological revolution,the rapid development of digital Inclusive Finance was likely to bring new growth power to farmers’ income.Digital inclusive finance is a new type of financial development format,with the deep integration of digital technology and Inclusive Finance.It can break through the limitations of time and region and provide financial services with wide coverage,low threshold and convenience,so that rural people who have been excluded from traditional financial services can also share the benefits of economic and financial development.On the one hand,digital inclusive finance can alleviate the credit constraints of enterprises.Financial institutions bypass the financial statements,credit records and mortgages in traditional financial services,and carry out accurate risk control through big data and artificial intelligence.Digital credit services do not exclude rural small,medium-sized and micro enterprises,and promote the germination and development of self-employed households.On the other hand,digital inclusive finance can alleviate the financial constraints of farmers and provide financial support for farmers’ labor transfer and human capital accumulation,so as to promote farmers’ Entrepreneurship and employment activities in non-agricultural fields and improve farmers’ income.We used the China Household Finance Survey of Southwest University to match with The Peking University Digital Financial Inclusion Index of China,with the digital inclusive finance index one period in advance to weaken the possibility of reverse causality.There were 10297 household samples had been screened in this paper,and empirically investigates the impact of the development of digital Inclusive Finance on Farmers’ income growth and income structure.Compared with existing studies,we used OLS model,instrumental variable model,quantile regression model and hierarchical regression model to more comprehensively deal with the inherent sample selection and endogenous problems of such studies,and puts forward a new idea that digital inclusive finance affects farmers’ income by promoting non-agricultural employment.The results show as follows.(1)Rural digital inclusive finance,non-agricultural employment and farmers’ income had the characteristics of uneven development;(2)The development of digital Inclusive Finance had a significant positive role in promoting the increase of farmers.Specifically,it helped to increase farmers’ wage income,operating income and property income.What’s more,it inhibited agricultural income,and had no obvious effect on property income;For farmers with low household wealth,the role of digital Inclusive Finance in promoting income was more obvious;(3)Non-agricultural employment played an intermediary role in the process of digital inclusive finance affecting farmers’ income.At this stage,China has been in a critical period of consolidating the achievements of poverty alleviation and connecting the Rural Revitalization Strategy.The relationship between digital Inclusive Finance,non-agricultural employment and farmers’ income revealed in this paper is likely to provide new ideas and empirical evidence for the design and improvement of relevant policies such as the development of rural digital inclusive finance,farmers’ Entrepreneurship and employment,and farmers’ broadening income channels.