数字普惠金融的创业效应与收入不平等:数字鸿沟还是数字红利？

数字普惠金融与实体经济之间的关系受到学界广泛关注,但其究竟是普惠的数字红利还是金融领域的数字鸿沟,这是数字普惠金融快速发展中亟需回答的重要理论与现实问题。文章通过匹配宏观统计数据和微观调查数据,实证研究了数字普惠金融的发展对收入不平等的影响,并从创业效应这一渠道进行了机制分析。研究发现：数字普惠金融的发展总体上改善了收入不平等状况,而数字普惠金融的创业效应是影响收入不平等的重要渠道之一。进一步的中介效应分析表明,数字普惠金融的创业效应对收入不平等的影响存在异质性：数字普惠金融通过促进生存型创业从而改善了收入不平等,而数字普惠金融对机会型创业的促进却在一定程度上扩大了收入不平等。文章的研究结论对于理解数字普惠金融发展的正外部性以及如何缓解收入不平等提供了新的视角。

Digital Financial Inclusion's Entrepreneurial Effect and Income Inequality: Digital Divide or Digital Bonus

In recent years, digital financial inclusion has developed rapidly in China and has a significant impact on all aspects of the economy. This article explores the income distribution effect of digital financial inclusion, and empirically examines the impact of the entrepreneurial effect of digital financial inclusion on the improvement of income inequality. Based on the combination of macro-statistical and micro-survey data, this article uses panel fixed-effects model and instrumental variable methods to explore the impact of digital financial inclusion on regional income inequality. Then we discuss the potential mechanisms from the perspective of entrepreneurial effect, which is one of the marginal contributions of this paper. The mechanism analysis part also considers the heterogeneity of survival entrepreneurship and opportunistic entrepreneurship in decreasing income inequality, which is another marginal contribution of this article. The research conclusions are as follows: First, digital financial inclusion alleviates income inequality as a whole, and the results are robust when considering endogeneity. Second, we find that digital financial inclusion promotes the development of entrepreneurship: digital financial inclusion not only increases the probability of survival entrepreneurship, but also increases the probability of opportunistic entrepreneurship. Third, the entrepreneurial effect of digital financial inclusion has heterogeneity in its impact on income inequality: on the one hand, digital financial inclusion decreases income inequality by promoting survival entrepreneurship, and on the other hand, digital financial inclusion has expanded income inequality to a certain extent by promoting opportunistic entrepreneurship. The results provide a new perspective for understanding the externalities of the development of digital financial inclusion and how to alleviate income inequality.