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Does air pollution inhibit digital finance? Evidence from Chinese prefecture-level cities.
- Source :
- PLoS ONE; 11/20/2023, Vol. 18 Issue 11, p1-20, 20p
- Publication Year :
- 2023
-
Abstract
- Air pollution poses significant health and economic challenges globally and specifically affecting China. Although air pollution has been associated with decreased productivity and biases in decision-making, its effect on the development of digital finance has received limited attention in the literature. By employing city-level data from China covering the period from 2013 to 2020, this research examines the impact of air pollution on digital finance. The results show that deteriorating air quality has a negligible impact on digitalization, whereas it has a negative impact on financial inclusion, measured by usage and coverage metrics. The negative impact on financial inclusion is more noticeable in economically weaker and less developed urban areas and low R&D than in developed areas and economically robust cities. The mechanism analysis shows that air pollution reduces human capital quality, resulting in a decline in financial inclusivity. These findings have significant policy implications, underscoring the necessity for approaches that simultaneously tackle air pollution and foster financial innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Subjects :
- HIGH technology industries
CITIES & towns
AIR pollution
AIR quality
HUMAN capital
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 19326203
- Volume :
- 18
- Issue :
- 11
- Database :
- Complementary Index
- Journal :
- PLoS ONE
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 173719853
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0294314