Does digital finance promote entrepreneurship? Evidence from city-level and household-level data in China

ABSTRACT

We investigate the impact of digital finance on entrepreneurship from both urban and household perspectives. Utilizing entrepreneurship data from 251 prefecture-level cities in mainland China, as well as household entrepreneurship data from CFPS, we find that digital finance plays a significant role in promoting both urban and household entrepreneurship. In addition, the effect of digital finance on urban and household entrepreneurship shows heterogeneity among different types of entrepreneurship and urban-rural household. Self-employment entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial activities of rural households receive greater support from the development of digital finance.

KEYWORDS:

• Digital finance
• household entrepreneurship
• urban entrepreneurship
• prefecture-level city

JEL CLASSIFICATION:

• G23
• R20
• L20

Disclosure statement

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