How does digital finance affect electricity consumption? an empirical analysis of the Yangtze River Economic Belt of China

This paper selects relevant data from 106 cities in the Yangtze River Economic Belt of China from 2011 to 2019, analyzes the relationship and transmission mechanism between digital finance (DF) and electricity consumption (ELC) using econometric models, and conducts robustness tests using the SYS-GMM model. Results show that DF is able to markedly promote ELC, partly through innovation & entrepreneurship (IE) and residents’ consumption (RC), and the intermediary effect of innovation & entrepreneurship is stronger than that of residents’ consumption. From diverse contents of DF, coverage breadth has significantly promoted ELC, while the usage depth has significantly reduced ELC. In addition, this paper also finds that with advanced economies and technological levels, the promotion of DF on ELC will be eased.