The stabilizing effect of FinTech in real economy investment: Evidence from China

Macroeconomic risks are increasing, and ongoing policy adjustments have led to a significant decline in investment growth. Stabilizing investment has become an important issue facing policymakers. In recent years, financial technology has enhanced financial efficiency and reduced costs through the application of information technology and product innovation. Against the backdrop of economic policy uncertainty, can FinTech reduce financial friction and promote corporate investment? The results show that: based on the negative impact of economic policy uncertainty on corporate investment, FinTech helps to alleviate this negative impact, and plays a role in stabilizing investment; through information asymmetry mechanism, FinTech reduces the degree of misallocation of credit resources for firms and increases the scale of credit, providing credit support for corporate investment; for firms that are more affected by misallocation of credit resources, the stabilizing effect of FinTech is more potent in these firms. This research demonstrates that improvements in FinTech can stabilize the decline in investment caused by economic policy uncertainty, thereby increasing investment willingness and stabilizing economic growth. • Economic policy uncertainty significantly reduces corporate investment. • FinTech mitigates the negative impact of policy uncertainty on investment. • FinTech reduces information asymmetry and credit misallocation. • Improved credit access through FinTech supports corporate investment. • The stabilizing effect of FinTech is stronger for financially constrained firms.