Digital Inclusive Finance, Multidimensional Education, and Farmers' Entrepreneurial Behavior

Scarce financial supply and low education level are important factors that inhibit the entrepreneurial behavior of rural residents in China. Based on the Static Career Choice Model, this paper matches the 2016 China Household Finance Survey (CHFS) micro-data with the Peking University Digital Financial Inclusive Index of the previous years to empirically test the impact of digital financial inclusion and academic education, tacit knowledge, and Internet learning on farmers. The direct influence and linkage effect of entrepreneurial behaviors revealed that digital financial inclusion and multidimensional education could significantly promote farmers' entrepreneurial choices. Digital financial inclusion can relieve the constraints of insufficient academic education on farmers' entrepreneurial choices, partially replace the tacit knowledge for rural residents, and improve the efficiency of Internet learning, which ultimately enhances the entrepreneurial behavior choices of the farmers. Our results are still significant and robust with respect to the sample data, explained variables, and estimation methods. We also consider the use of instrumental variables to overcome the potential endogeneity issues. Through comparative analysis of different regions, it is found that the performance is particularly obvious in the eastern region.

Automated summary

This paper examines the impact of digital financial inclusion and multidimensional education on entrepreneurial choices of farmers in rural China, finding that they significantly promote farmers' entrepreneurial behavior.