The impact of psychological distance and fintech on Chinese farmers’ willingness to make financing choices

ABSTRACT

Using data from China’s 2017 national household survey, we examine the effect of psychological distance on Chinese farmers’ willingness to make financing choices. Our empirical results show that psychological distance has a statistically significant impact on farmers’ choice of finance. A close psychological distance increases farmers’ willingness to choose financial institutions by activating low-level construal representation. Fintech plays an intermediary role. The psychological distance between farmers and financial institutions affects farmers’ financing choices and is mediated by fintech. Our study offers the micro-level proof of the relationship between psychological distance and Chinese farmers’ financing preferences.

KEYWORDS:

• Financial institutions
• farmer
• fintech
• willingness
• psychological distance

JEL CLASSIFICATION:

• Q14

Disclosure statement

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

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Keystone Project of the National Social Science Fund of China under Grant, No. 19ZDA115.