| In today’s society,middle-income group is the cornerstone of social harmony and stability,which is of great concern to society and scholars.The middle-income group is the backbone of economic and social development,and is the basis for the construction of an "olive-shaped" social structure.With the rapid development of China’s economy,China has entered the ranks of the world’s middle and high-income countries.In order to expand the proportion of middle-income group and increase the income of middle-income group,China vigorously advocates a series of policies such as "raising the income of lowincome groups and expanding middle-income groups",and expanding the middle-income group is one of the basic tasks to achieve common prosperity.Digital financial inclusion based on the Internet,big data,and cloud computing can break the geographical restrictions and effectively reduce transaction costs,thus raising the income level of residents,increasing the proportion of middle-income groups,and improving the income structure of China.First,this thesis uses the survey data of China Family Panel Studies(CFPS)in 2010,2012,2014,2016 and 2018.First,descriptive statistical analysis of China’s residents’ income is conducted from various perspectives,and then,after studying the existing literature and synthesizing the actual situation of China’s residents’ income,the most suitable method of defining the middle-income group of 0.75-1.25 times the median is selected after generalizing the criteria for defining the middle-income group.Combined with the kernel density estimation method,The study focuses on the changes of the proportion of middle-income groups in China,and then measures the proportion of middle-income groups in China at six levels: urban,rural,eastern,central,western and northeastern.Second,we analyze the factors influencing the change of the proportion of middleincome groups in China from macro and micro perspectives.On the macro level,the thesis uses a dynamic decomposition model to classify the magnitude of the effects brought by the factors influencing the change in the proportion of national,urban and rural middle-income groups into economic growth effect,income distribution effect and standard line change effect.It is found that: the total effect has an overall increasing trend on the proportion of middle-income groups in China;the economic growth effect expands the proportion of middle-income groups in China regardless of national,urban or rural areas;the income distribution effect negatively hinders the increase of the proportion of middle-income groups;and the standard line change effect has a smaller impact.On the micro level,using the quantile regression method,the thesis measures the quantile range corresponding to the middle-income group as 0.386-0.590.At each quantile,it is found that the variables that significantly affect the income of the middle-income group are different for the national,urban and rural areas: for the national level,the four variables of urban and rural areas,gender,years of education and health status are the most important factors affecting the income of the middle-income group,while the variables of urban and rural areas,the three variables of age,years of education,and health status significantly affect the income of the middle-income group.Finally,using the China Digital Financial Inclusion Development Index,provincial data,and China Family Panel Studies(CFPS)matched data,the impact of the development of digital financial inclusion in China on the weight effect of the middleincome group is investigated.A binary choice model for panel data is constructed to empirically analyze the impact of digital inclusive finance on the weight effect of middleincome group after the dummy variable of middle-income group weight effect is obtained by kernel density estimation to determine whether the household belongs to the middleincome group or not.The study shows that: digital financial inclusion can significantly increase the proportion of middle-income group,and the results of replacing the twodimensional index are still significant,indicating that the baseline regression results are more robust;the effect of digital financial inclusion on the proportion of middle-income group varies by the degree of economic development and regional development;the higher level of economic development and the more highly developed industrial structure deepen the impact of digital financial inclusion,making the middle-income group the possibility of increasing the proportion of middle-income group is significantly higher.The thesis enriches the study of the role of digital financial inclusion on the proportion of middle-income groups.Based on the research of the thesis,we propose the following recommendations: to improve the income level and narrow the gap;to enhance the education of residents and promote their income;to develop digital financial inclusion according to local conditions and focus on cross-regional coordinated development;to maintain sustained economic growth,to continuously promote the development of digital financial inclusion and to improve the income distribution in order to promote the income distribution structure of China to an "olive shape". |
