Nexus between green finance, fintech, and high-quality economic development: Empirical evidence from China

Abstract This study empirically examines the effect of green finance and fintech on high-quality economic development. Using data from 30 provinces and municipalities in China from 2007 to 2019, this study applies panel regression analysis to investigate the relationships between green finance, fintech, and high-quality economic development, and adopts a two-step generalized method of moments (GMM) to defaecate the endogeneity issue. This study finds that green finance comprehensively facilitates high-quality economic development by positively affect its all three aspects (i.e., ecological environment, economic efficiency, and economic structure). Additionally, fintech strengthens the positive impact of green finance in the aspects of ecological environment and economic structure, while having limited effects on the relationship between green finance and economic efficiency. Based on these findings, our study proposes three policy suggestions for policymakers, including reinforcing the integration of fintech development with green finance, building an environmental disclosure framework to supervise local governments in improving efficiency of green finance, and developing medium- and long-term favorable policies as an external intervention measure to promote green finance in the private sector.