How digital inclusive finance drives the high-quality development of marine economy: Empirical evidence from coastal China
Using panel data from China's coastal regions (2011–2022), this study demonstrates that digital inclusive finance significantly promotes the high-quality development of the marine economy through mechanisms like industrial upgrading and financing scale, though its effectiveness is moderated by the digital divide and exhibits an inverted U-shaped relationship influenced by financial regulation and venture capital.
Original paper licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). This is an AI-generated explanation of the paper below. It is not written or endorsed by the authors. For technical accuracy, refer to the original paper. Read full disclaimer
The Big Picture: Giving the Ocean a Digital Wallet
Imagine China's coastal economy (fishing, shipping, tourism, and offshore energy) as a massive, bustling ocean garden. For a long time, this garden has been trying to grow better, greener, and more innovative (what the authors call "High-Quality Development"). However, the gardeners (businesses and fishermen) have been struggling because they can't get enough water (money) to make their plants thrive. Traditional banks are like old-fashioned wells: they are deep, hard to reach, and often only pour water for the biggest, richest trees, leaving the smaller shrubs and flowers dry.
This paper asks a simple question: Can "Digital Inclusive Finance" (DIF) act like a high-tech, automated sprinkler system that reaches every corner of the garden, even the hard-to-reach spots?
The authors say yes, but with some important rules about how the water flows.
The Main Findings: How the Sprinkler System Works
1. The Sprinkler Works (The Main Effect)
The study found that digital finance (using apps, online banking, and digital tools to get loans) significantly helps the marine economy grow better. It's like turning on a powerful sprinkler that waters the whole garden, not just the front lawn. It helps small businesses get the funds they need to upgrade their equipment and become more efficient.
2. The Three Ways the Water Helps (The Mechanisms)
The paper explains how this digital water helps the garden grow in three specific ways:
- Reorganizing the Garden Beds (Industrial Structure Upgrading): The money doesn't just go to old, low-efficiency crops. It helps shift resources toward high-tech, high-value plants (like moving from simple fishing to high-tech marine biotechnology).
- Filling the Troughs (Financing Scale): It simply puts more water into the system. More money becomes available for businesses to invest in new ideas.
- Creating a Watering Hub (Financial Aggregation): It brings financial resources together in one place, creating a "hub" where money, talent, and information flow faster and more efficiently, much like a busy city center where deals happen quickly.
3. The "Dry Spots" Problem (The Digital Divide)
Here is the catch: The sprinkler system only works if the gardeners know how to use the remote control. The paper found that the Digital Divide (people lacking internet access, smartphones, or the skills to use them) acts like a rusty valve. In areas where people don't have good internet or digital skills, the digital finance system can't deliver its full power. The water hits the ground but doesn't reach the roots.
4. The "Goldilocks" Zone (The Inverted U-Shape)
The authors discovered that the amount of help digital finance provides isn't a straight line that goes up forever. It's shaped like a hill (an inverted U).
- Too little regulation or capital: The system is chaotic, and money is wasted.
- Too much regulation or capital: The system gets bogged down, rules are too strict, or there is so much money chasing too few projects that it becomes inefficient.
- Just right: There is a "sweet spot" where government rules and private investment (venture capital) are balanced. In this zone, digital finance works best.
Who Benefits the Most? (Regional Differences)
The study looked at 11 coastal provinces and found that the "sprinkler" works differently depending on the soil:
- High Investment Areas: Places already investing heavily in the ocean get a bigger boost.
- Low Traditional Finance Areas: In places where traditional banks are weak, digital finance is a lifesaver because it fills a huge gap.
- High Marketization Areas: Places where the market is free and open see better results than places where the government controls everything tightly.
The Bottom Line
The paper concludes that Digital Inclusive Finance is a powerful engine for making China's marine economy smarter and more sustainable. However, it's not a magic wand. To get the best results, we need to:
- Fix the rusty valves (bridge the digital divide so everyone can use the tech).
- Find the Goldilocks zone (keep government rules and investment levels balanced—not too loose, not too tight).
- Tailor the approach to the local soil (different strategies for different coastal regions).
In short, digital finance can help the ocean economy bloom, but only if the gardeners have the tools to use it and the rules of the garden allow the water to flow freely.
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