How does financial development environment affect regional innovation capabilities? New perspectives from digital finance and institutional quality

Abstract

Based on China's 30 provincial panel data from 2006 to 2018, this paper uses the spatial Durbin model to empirically study the influence path and transmission mechanism of financial development on regional technological innovation, and introduce digital finance environment, marketization degree, and government environmental management as an adjustment variable to verify its regulating effect on financial development and regional technological innovation. The study found that the overall promotion of digital finance to local technological innovation is not significant. Besides, the characteristics of ownership discrimination and weak risk appetite in the bank's medium and long-term credit market have led to its failure to promote regional technological innovation. In contrast, the stock market and bond market in direct financing channels have enhanced local innovation capabilities. When the external environmental system is used as the adjustment variable, the results show that an excellent digital finance development, marketization degree, and government environmental management can effectively and positively regulate the effect of financial development and technological innovation.

Does Infrastructure Improve Residents’ Consumption? Evidence from China’s New‐Generation Infrastructure

“…Te central region has the greatest potential, and the western region has more space for development. Te consumption efect performs best in high-income regions, and this paper argues that this reason is due to the consistent tendency of capital factors and traditional production factors to pursue proft maximization [50]. Terefore, the increase in income can promote the upgrading of resident consumption through production restructuring, which is consistent with the fndings of Yu et al [51,52].…”

Can digital economy improve employment structure?—Mediating effect based on a spatial Durbin model

“…Eder et al (2022) explored the impact of digital technology on the size of employment in Austria and demonstrated that new technological elements will increase the employment of high-skilled and low-skilled labor and reduce the employment of medium-skilled labor, thereby polarizing the employment structure [5]. Lu (2023) finds that the overall impact of the digital economy on local technological innovation is not significant based on the panel data of 30 provinces in China from 2006 to 2018 [6]. In terms of the creative effects of the digital economy, Graetz and Michaels (2018) revealed that the digitization of enterprises in the industrial sector reduces the share of employment in the sector and promotes employment in high-end services [7].…”