Research On The Impact Of Digital Financial Inclusion On Household Leverage Ratio

Due to the rapid development of the mobile Internet,cloud computing,big data and other new information technologies,the traditional approach to inclusive finance development has undergone certain changes.Digital financial inclusion is a perfect blend of data and the advantages of inclusive finance.With the support of digital technology,inclusive finance has undergone a significant transformation in terms of service paths and service costs,and digital financial inclusion has provided more convenient and efficient financial services to many households in the country.On the one hand,it opens up the long tail of relevant financial services,making them more accessible to disadvantaged groups excluded from the credit market;on the other hand,it reduces the cost of borrowing through online channels and data analysis tools,allowing financial institutions to provide commercially sustainable credit services to the ’long tail’ of customers.While digital financial inclusion has provided a degree of convenience,it has also had a profound impact on changes in household leverage ratio.As an important direction for China’s future participation in global competition,exploring the relationship between digital financial inclusion and household leverage ratio in the context of preventing and controlling systemic financial risks is conducive to better promoting the high-quality development of digital financial inclusion and further suggesting relevant countermeasures to reasonably control financial risks in China.Through a theoretical analysis of existing research on digital financial inclusion and household leverage ratio,this paper analyses the possible impact of digital financial inclusion on household leverage ratio from a qualitative perspective.Based on this,panel data are constructed using the 2016 and 2018 China Family Pannel Studies(CFPS)and Institute of Digital Finance,Peking University data as samples,the two-way fixed effects model is used to conduct benchmark regressions on the impact of household leverage ratio,and endogeneity discussions,robustness tests,mediation effects analysis,and heterogeneity studies are conducted.In terms of the impact mechanism,household holdings of financial credit products are used as mediating variables to explore whether there is a mediating effect in the process of the impact of digital financial inclusion on household leverage ratio.The study shows that: firstly,the development of digital financial inclusion has a significant contribution to household leverage ratio.Second,the empirical results show that household holdings of financial credit products partially mediate the effect of digital financial inclusion in increasing household leverage ratio.Third,based on sub-sample heterogeneity regressions of urban and rural areas and the education level of the household head,urban and rural heterogeneity shows that the development of digital financial inclusion has a significant impact on the increase in leverage ratio of rural households,but not on urban households;heterogeneity in the education level of the household head shows that digital financial inclusion has a significant impact on the increase in leverage ratio of low and medium-educated households,but not on the leverage ratio of highly educated households The impact is not significant.To sum up,in order to promote digital financial inclusion to better promote high-quality economic development and control household credit risks,this paper puts forward countermeasure suggestions in terms of broadening the coverage of digital financial inclusion,developing digital financial inclusion according to local conditions,strengthening education of digital financial inclusion investors and establishing an appropriate regulatory system for digital financial inclusion.