Can digital financial inclusion promote urban economic resilience? Evidence from Guangxi, China

Current research suggests digital financial inclusion (DFI) can promote economic resilience regionally by reaching marginalised groups. This paper aims to innovatively determine the function of DFI on urban economic resilience (UER) from a spatial perspective by taking Guangxi province in China as an example. The spatial Durbin model with dual fixed effects and panel data from prefecture-level cities over the period 2011–2022 were employed in our study. We find that (1) the advancement of DFI in Guangxi has a notable positive contribution to the improvement of UER, and the higher the DFI index of a city, the higher its UER level; (2) the expansion of DFI in surrounding regions has negative spatial spillover effects on the local UER level and (3) a distinct Siphon Effect is observed in the urban economic resilience among Guangxi cities. This study also provides recommendations for enhancing urban economic resilience in Guangxi.