Does Digital Finance Increase Relatively Large-Scale Farmers’ Agricultural Income through the Allocation of Production Factors? Evidence from China

Abstract

The inclusiveness of digital finance brings new opportunities for the development of agriculture, rural areas, and farmers. The purpose of this paper is to clarify how digital finance influences relatively large-scale farmers’ agricultural income. Based on survey data from rural China, this paper systematically investigates the impact of digital finance on relatively large-scale farmers’ agricultural income using the Multiple Intermediary Effect Model. The findings of this study reveal that digital finance has a substantial positive influence on relatively large-scale farmers’ agricultural income, and this effect still exists after considering endogeneity and a series of robustness tests. Further mechanism analyses suggest that agricultural capital, agricultural land, and agricultural workforce play a partial mediating role between digital finance and agricultural income. The development of digital finance has a positive impact on improving agricultural capital investment and land transfer, while it has a negative impact on agricultural workforce. Moreover, the results of the grouping estimation show that digital finance has more significant effects on agricultural income for economic crops and farmers who received agricultural skills training and agricultural services. These results provide a micro explanation to promote relatively large-scale farmers’ agricultural income with the accelerated popularization of digital finance, urgently needed for most emerging countries seeking high-quality rural development.