Abstract:

Strengthening digital inclusive financial services is the requirement of the times to support the goal of common prosperity. To reveal the inherent mechanism of digital inclusive finance in helping farmers increase their income, this article empirically analyzed the impact of digital inclusive finance on farmers' income growth and income structure changes based on the Peking University digital inclusive finance index from 2011 to 2020 and related income statistical data. The results indicated that digital inclusive finance had a significant promoting effect on farmers' income growth. The degree of promotion of different sources of income growth in farmers' income structure was in descending order: net income from farmers' transfer, net income from farmers' property, net income from farmers' wages, and net income from farmers' operations. Digital inclusive finance had a more significant effect on aiding agriculture and increasing income in the low level of economic development in the central, western, and northeastern regions. Overall, digital inclusive finance was helpful to narrow the income gap between urban and rural areas, but posed a risk of widening the gap between net operating income and net property income. Based on this, the government should comply with the impact characteristics of digital inclusive finance on farmers' income, develop digital inclusive finance more efficiently and higher quality, vigorously promote digital inclusive finance in areas with low economic development levels, and also formulate countermeasures to avoid the risk of widening the urban-rural gap between net operating income and net property income.

Key words: farmer income, digital inclusive finance, urban-rural income gap, income structure