Digital finance promotes sustainable total factor eco-efficiency: evidence from China

ABSTRACT

A super-efficient SBM model was constructed using Chinese provincial panel data from 2011 to 2018 to explore the impact of digital finance on sustainable total factor eco-efficiency (STFEcE) and its mechanisms of action. The results show that digital finance can promote the improvement of STFEcE, and this promotion is heterogeneous. Western regions with more backward financial development, ecologically inefficient regions, and financially weakly regulated regions have more significant eco-efficiency improvements from digital financial services. Digital finance influences STFEcE by expanding the scale of green credit and enhancing the level of green and digital technology innovation. Therefore, the government should support the efficient integration of digital technology and financial services in macro policies, accelerate the infrastructure construction of digital finance, eliminate the digital divide, and create a favourable financial environment for improving STFEcE.

KEYWORDS:

• Super-efficiency SBM Model
• Sustainable total factor eco-efficiency
• Digital finance
• Heterogeneity analysis

JEL CLASSIFICATION:

• E44
• Q01
• Q57
• O57

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s)

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant number 71471001], Humanities and Social Sciences Fund of Anhui Provincial Department of Education [grant number SK2018B10], Innovation and Development of Social Sciences Funds of Anhui Province [grant number 2020C×096], Applied Economics Fund of Chuzhou University [grant number 2021yyjjx03], and Research Startup Fund of Anhui jianzhu University [grant number 2022QDZ17].