Digital Finance, Per Capita Income and Food Nitrogen Footprint

Digital finance is now increasingly relevant to our lives. In addition to profoundly altering the economy, digital finance might also have an effect on environmental degradation. The majority of research on ecological pollutants currently focuses on carbon emission, in contrast, there is a dearth of studies on nitrogen pollution or emissions. These pollutants have threatened the survival and development of human beings. Thus, it is worthwhile to investigate if the environment will be impacted by digital finance. Based on the EKC hypothesis, this paper attempts to evaluate the environmental degradation effects of digital finance. After using provincial municipal level panel data from 2011–2022 in China for empirical analysis, digital finance and the nitrogen footprint are found to have a U-shaped, non-linear correlation. Before food nitrogen footprint reaches the crucial value, digital finance has an inhibitory effect; once it reaches the critical value, it has a promotional effect. Furthermore direct impact of digital finance on residents’ food nitrogen footprint, digital finance mainly affects residents’ food nitrogen footprint through per capita income, i.e. there is mediations effect.