金融学院知识库

党的二十大报告强调，要扎实推进共同富裕。这是中国共产党人对人民至上执政理念的深刻践行，是广大人民群众对现代化美好生活的共同期盼。因此说，解决城乡居民生活质量差距，是全面建成社会主义现代化强国进程中必须解决的重要课题。普惠金融致力于为社会所有阶层提供价格合理、需求匹配的金融服务，将原有被排斥在金融体系之外的低收入人群，尤其是偏远地区人群等纳入金融服务对象行列。在数字经济的背景下，数字普惠金融作为普惠金融的进一步扩展，利用数字技术优势，进一步拓宽了金融服务的边界，克服了地域限制，提高了成本可负担性和商业可持续性，覆盖了长尾市场，对城乡居民生活质量的提升与改善带来了深远影响。正因为如此，数字普惠金融对城乡居民生活质量差距的影响逐渐进入学者的研究视野。

本文在梳理国内外学者对数字普惠金融和城乡居民生活质量差距研究的文献基础上，分析了数字普惠金融对城乡居民生活质量差距影响的理论机理并提出相应的理论假设。基于中国数字普惠金融发展水平与城乡居民生活质量差距的特征事实，通过选取变量和构建模型，利用2011-2021年31个省份的省际面板数据，就数字普惠金融发展对城乡居民生活质量差距的影响进行了实证检验。实证结论主要有：（1）固定效应模型回归检验结果表明，数字普惠金融的普及在影响收入水平差距、消费水平差距以及公共服务差距方面发挥着关键作用。稳健性检验表明该结论稳健成立。（2）异质性检验表明，数字普惠金融发展对城乡居民生活质量差距的影响存在显著的区域异质性特征，其影响效果中部地区最大，东部地区次之，西部地区最小。（3）中介效应检验表明，农村经济增长在数字普惠金融影响城乡居民生活质量差距的过程中发挥中介效应。（4）调节效应检验表明，在城镇化水平更高的地区，随着城镇化水平的提高，农村居民对数字普惠金融的依赖程度降低。

根据上述研究结论，本文提出以下政策建议：（1）加大技术创新投入与研发，深化金融数字化改革，以发展数字普惠金融服务的广度和深度。（2）针对不同的地区特征，不同的民众需求，施行具有差异化的数字普惠金融政策。（3）政府应加大对农村地区数字基础设施的投资，提高互联网覆盖率和移动支付等数字金融服务在农村地区的普及率，为加大数字普惠金融对于农村经济增长的推动作用创造条件。（4）优化区域布局，重点推进城镇化水平较低地区的数字普惠金融服务普及。 政府应结合地区经济发展实际，制定差异化的发展策略，优先支持城镇化水平较低地区的数字普惠金融发展，确保金融资源在地区间实现合理分配。

The report of the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China emphasizes that strengthening social construction must focus on ensuring and improving people's livelihoods. The report of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China proposes to comprehensively win a moderately prosperous society, making the people's sense of gain, happiness, and security more substantial, secure, and sustainable. The report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China emphasizes the need to solidly promote common prosperity. This is the CPC's profound practice of the concept of people first governance, and the common expectation of the broad masses of the people for a modern and better life. Therefore, narrowing the gap in the quality of life between urban and rural residents is an important issue that must be addressed in the process of comprehensively building a socialist modernized strong country. Inclusive finance is committed to providing financial services at reasonable prices and matching needs for all sectors of society, including low-income groups who were previously excluded from the financial system, especially those in remote areas, into the list of financial service recipients. Digital inclusive finance has overcome geographical limitations, improved cost affordability and commercial sustainability, covered the long tail market, and had a profound impact on narrowing the gap in the quality of life between urban and rural residents. As a result, the impact of digital inclusive finance on the quality of life gap between urban and rural residents has gradually entered the research field of scholars.

This article reviews and summarizes the literature on digital inclusive finance and the quality of life gap between urban and rural residents both domestically and internationally, and constructs an evaluation system for the quality of life gap between urban and rural residents that is in line with China's national conditions. Analyzing the direct impact of digital inclusive finance on the quality of life gap between urban and rural residents, the regional heterogeneity of the impact of digital inclusive finance on the quality of life gap between urban and rural residents, and the nonlinear characteristics of the impact of digital inclusive finance on the quality of life gap between urban and rural residents, and introducing rural economic growth and urbanization as intermediary effects, Elaborate on the mechanism of digital inclusive finance in narrowing the gap in the quality of life between urban and rural residents. Finally, some suggestions are proposed on how to leverage the development of digital inclusive finance to narrow the gap in the quality of life between urban and rural residents.

This article draws the following conclusion through empirical testing: (1) The development of digital inclusive finance has significantly narrowed the gap in the quality of life between urban and rural residents. (2) Rural economic growth plays an intermediary role in narrowing the gap in the quality of life between urban and rural residents through the development of digital inclusive finance. The level of urbanization has moderated the effect of digital inclusive finance development on narrowing the gap in the quality of life between urban and rural residents. (3) The development of digital inclusive finance has regional heterogeneity in narrowing the gap in the quality of life between urban and rural residents. The central region has the best effect, followed by the eastern region, and the western region has the worst.

Based on the research findings, this article proposes the following policy recommendations: (1) Increase investment in technological innovation and research and development, deepen financial digital reform, and develop the breadth and depth of digital inclusive financial services. (2) Implement differentiated digital inclusive finance policies tailored to different regional characteristics and public needs. (3) The government should increase investment in digital infrastructure in rural areas, improve the penetration rate of digital financial services such as Internet coverage and mobile payment in rural areas, and create conditions for increasing the role of digital inclusive finance in promoting rural economic growth. (4) Optimize regional layout and focus on promoting the popularization of digital inclusive financial services in areas with lower levels of urbanization. The government should formulate differentiated development strategies based on the actual economic development of the region, give priority to supporting the development of digital inclusive finance in areas with lower levels of urbanization, and ensure the rational allocation of financial resources between regions.