Research on Regional Differences and Effects of Digital Finance and Industrial Green Transformation

In recent years, relying on the powerful advantages of the Internet and computer technology data, digital finance (DF) has been developing rapidly. The mechanism of its role in promoting industrial green transformation (IGT) has attracted extensive attention from both academia and industry. This study explores the impact mechanism and regional differences of DF on IGT by using panel data of 108 cities in the Yangtze River Economic Belt from 2011 to 2021, combined with fixed-effects model, mediation model, and spatial Durbin model. According to the study, DF can successfully encourage the growth of local IGT while inhibiting that of nearby IGT, and the expansion of DF coverage is the main reason to promote the enhancement of IGT. In addition, the degree of green technology innovation and energy consumption structure are important mediating factors for DF to promote IGT, and the mediating effect contributions of the two are 36.8% and 14.9%, respectively. Finally, there are huge disparities in IGT in different places with evident geographic aggregation. Heterogeneity analysis shows that DF in the downstream region of the Yangtze River Economic Belt has the strongest promotion impact on local IGT, then came the middle and upstream; from the viewpoint of urban clusters, DF in the Yangtze River Delta urban cluster has the strongest contribution to IGT, the urban cluster in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River and Chengdu-Chongqing come next. Studying the impact of DF on IGT is an important way to promote sustainable development and an inevitable trend for the application of modern computer technology in the field of finance to promote the optimal allocation of resources. This paper aims to provide policy insights for promoting industrial green transformation, as well as practical references for narrowing regional differences and promoting the process of regional industrial integration.