Digital financial inclusion and household debt in China

ABSTRACT

This study investigates the impact of digital financial inclusion (DFI) on household debt in China. The development of DFI positively affects the total household debt, especially for short-term debt and long-term debt from banks. This indicates that DFI promotes more Chinese households to borrow through formal channels. Furthermore, the development of DFI stimulates more loans from Chinese urban households. Our findings provide useful insights into the important issue of Chinese household debt risk.

KEYWORDS:

• Digital financial inclusion
• household debt
• household consumption
• household leverage

JEL CLASSIFICATION:

• D10
• D14
• G21

Disclosure statement

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

Notes

¹ Excluding Xinjiang, Tibet, Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant number 72003029]