The impact of digital finance on women's bargaining power: Evidence from China

This paper explores the effect of digital finance adoption on women's bargaining power within the family. Empirical analysis finds that higher digital finance adoption significantly improves women's bargaining power and thus alleviates intra-household inequality. We explain the underlying mechanism in terms of women's participation in both labor and financial market. The subsample regression results show that the impact differs among families with distinct characteristics in terms of regions, family living patterns and women's fertility status. This paper provides a new perspective for understanding the inclusive contribution of digital finance and forms a timely complement to the literature in related fields.