Digital Finance, Resource Curse and Urban Green and Low-Carbon Development

Against the background of the urgent need for sustainable urban development, digital finance, as a new engine to promote green and low-carbon development, is reshaping the path of capital flow and technological innovation. This study selects the data of prefecture-level cities in China from 2011 to 2020, and deeply explores the impact effect of digital finance on urban green and low-carbon development, and analyzes the mediating role of resource curse in it. The results of the study are as follows: first, digital finance obviously accelerates the process of urban green and low-carbon development; second, the promotion effect of digital finance on urban green and low-carbon development is particularly prominent in resource-rich cities, areas with higher degree of marketization, and cities with lower public awareness of the environment; third, further analyses show that the curse of resources plays an intermediary role in this process, i.e., digital finance mitigates the negative effects of the curse of resources and contributes to the development of urban green and low-carbon development by alleviating the Resource curse plays an intermediary role in this process, i.e. digital finance provides acceleration for urban green low-carbon development by mitigating the negative effects of resource curse; in addition, the broadband China strategy serves as a key policy support for the development of digital finance, and it also has a significant role in promoting urban green low-carbon development. This study not only provides empirical support for the application of digital finance in the field of environmental policy, but also provides policy insights on how resource-dependent cities can utilize fintech to overcome development barriers, which is of great significance for the promotion of global green and low-carbon development.