Fintech and Regional Economic Performance in China (2012-2019)

This study examines the effect of FinTech on economic performance for a panel of 31 provinces in mainland China between 2012 and 2019. The digital financial index compiled by Peking University is used to measure FinTech development. Besides ordinary least squares, we implement instrumental quantile regression, which is able to take into account the varying stages of economic development of the different provinces. Our findings show that the effect of FinTech on provincial economic development—measured by GDP per capita—is positive. However, the magnitude and significance of the effect vary across provinces and dimensions of FinTech