Study on the influence of digital financial inclusion on agricultural carbon emission efficiency in the Yangtze River Economic Belt

Abstract Improving the efficiency of agricultural carbon emission is an inevitable choice for high-quality sustainable development. As a new financial intermediary, what impact does the growth of digital financial inclusion have on the efficiency of agricultural carbon emissions? This paper uses the SBM-ML model to calculate the agricultural carbon emission efficiency of 110 prefecture-level cities in the Yangtze River Economic Belt from 2012 to 2020. Then, it analyzes its temporal and spatial evolution trend. Based on it, the panel regression model is used to analyze how the growth of digital financial inclusion affects agricultural carbon emission efficiency. Results show the following: (1) from the time dimension, the efficiency generally declined first and then rose with less fluctuations and stability, which is determined by technical efficiency and technological progress change, and from the spatial dimension, the number of cities with agricultural carbon emission efficiency greater than 1.0 is generally increasing, reflecting that the overall level is increasing; and (2) the growth of digital financial inclusion has a negative impact on agricultural carbon emission efficiency. The improvement of agricultural carbon emission efficiency has been hampered by the use depth and digitalization level of digital financial inclusion, but its coverage breadth can support this improvement. This paper aims to advance digital financial inclusive growth and low-carbon transformation of agriculture in China.