A Study on Factors Influencing the Efficiency of Rural Agriculture Financial Support in China

Abstract

The development of rural finance has an important impact on agricultural development. This study is to quantitatively evaluate the efficiency of rural agriculture financial support in China and empirically analyze its influencing factors. Based on the panel data of 30 provinces in China from 2014 to 2018, this study uses the DEA model to quantitatively evaluate the efficiency of rural agriculture financial support and uses the panel Tobit model to form an empirical analysis of its influencing factors. The results show that: (1) The efficiency of rural agriculture financial support in the eastern region is significantly higher than that in the central and western regions; (2) The efficiency of rural agriculture financial support in Beijing, Zhejiang, and Guangdong are on the production frontier over the years, while other provinces have a large space to improve efficiency; (3) The strength of rural financial support as well as the level of regional economic development has a significant positive impact on the efficiency of rural agriculture financial support, while the intensity of rural financial services, as well as the scale of agricultural production and operation, has a significant negative impact. Finally, this study puts forward policy recommendations on rural financial support for the development of “agriculture, rural areas and farmers”.