The Impact of Digital Finance on Rural Land Transfer: Dynamic Spillover Effects and Mechanism Examination

Digital inclusive finance provides financial capital and digital services for agricultural production, which has the necessary conditions to promote rural land transfer and improve the rural factor market. This paper constructs a theoretical analytical framework for the impact of digital financial inclusion on rural land transfer from both direct and indirect roles; adopts the dynamic spatial Durbin model to empirically test the hypothesized spillover effect and impact mechanism. The results indicate that: (1) digital inclusive finance facilitates rural land transfer and generates long-term spillover effects; (2)the mediating effects of agricultural infrastructure, rural labor force, and agricultural mechanization in the process of digital financial inclusion affecting rural land transfer are significant and decreasing in order; (3)the differences in the agricultural industrial base and geographic endowment in central and western China are the main factors that cause regional heterogeneity. Finally, we propose three suggestions to promote the moderate-scale operation of agriculture by expanding the coverage and service depth of digital inclusive finance, promoting the double aggregation of rural population and industry, and making up for the short boards of agricultural production in the western region.