Digital Dividend or Digital Divide: Can Fintech Bridge the Wealth Gap Amid Public Health Emergencies? a Comparative Research of Urban and Rural China
利用2015-2021年中国家庭金融调查数据，研究新冠疫情下金融科技对城乡家庭财富的影响，发现金融科技缓解了城市家庭财富损失，但未惠及农村家庭，反而加剧了数字鸿沟导致的财富不平等。
ABSTRACT As a significant driver of financial innovation, can fintech provide protection for household wealth during major public health events? This paper utilises data from the China Household Finance Survey (CHFS) from 2015 to 2021 to construct Difference‐in‐Differences and Triple Difference models to assess the effectiveness of fintech in mitigating the adverse wealth impacts on urban and rural families during the COVID‐19 pandemic. The research indicates that: (1) the pandemic has exacerbated the pre‐existing wealth inequality between urban and rural families in China; (2) following the outbreak, fintech alleviated the negative impacts on urban family wealth, but did not significantly affect rural family wealth, thereby widening the inequality exacerbated by the digital divide; (3) the factors driving this digital divide include disparities in financial literacy between urban and rural residents, which lead to unequal access to the benefits of fintech.