How does inclusion of digital finance, financial technology, and digital literacy unlock the regional economy across districts in Sumatra? A spatial heterogeneity and sentiment analysis

Uneven economic performance has become a main concern in the regional context of Sumatra. This study examines regional economic dynamics in Sumatra using the newlyweds' night-time light data and digitalization-related variables as the influencing factors. The analysis uses district‐level data from 2019 to 2022 to account for heterogeneity across Sumatra districts and estimates spatial magnitudes among clusters. Two main analyses were conducted to address the challenges of applying spatial perspectives in evaluating economic performances. Sentiment analysis conveys that digitalization-related variables are positively correlated with regional economies. Furthermore, exploiting a Geographically Weighted Regression, this study confirms that the effect of inclusion of digital finance, financial technology, and digital literacy varies across districts. Compared to the Southern part, digitalization-related variables are more pronounced in Sumatra's Northern and Middle parts. In addition, the overall results indicate that the inclusion of digital finance and digital literacy tends to leverage regional growth across districts. The findings suggest that the importance of targeting investment and digitized-based policy in less-affected regions could be a key policy direction for achieving balanced regional development.