The impact of digital finance development on carbon dioxide emissions: Evidence from households in China

Based on the expansion of the consumption scale caused by the convenience of mobile payment, this paper constructs a general equilibrium theoretical model for analysing the impact of digital finance development on household carbon dioxide emissions. Then, the form empirically tests the impact of digital finance development on households' carbon dioxide emissions using the microdata from the China Household Tracking Survey (CFPS). It is found that the development of digital finance can significantly increase the carbon dioxide emissions of household consumption, mainly from the increase in developmental consumption. The mechanism analysis also shows that the expansion of the consumption scale and the upgrade of consumption tendency caused by the convenience of payment and wage premium achieve the related effects. Finally, residents' environmental awareness and social and environmental governance factors also actively adjust the impact of digital financial development on carbon dioxide emissions.