数字普惠金融与城市FDI流入——基于人力资本与创新能力的视角

Digital Inclusive Finance and Urban FDI Inflows:A Perspective Based on Human Capital and Innovation Capability

更大力度吸引和利用外资是当前的重点工作任务,已有研究较少从地理位置、行政级别、金融发展、对外开放维度探讨数字普惠金融对城市FDI流入的异质性影响,也鲜有从人力资本与创新能力的视角探讨数字普惠金融如何影响城市FDI流入。本文使用2011-2021年全国285个城市的面板数据,研究发现:(1)数字普惠金融能够吸引城市FDI流入,使用工具变量估计、核心解释变量滞后一期等方法进行稳健性检验,结果依然成立。(2)数字普惠金融对城市FDI流入的吸引效应存在异质性,金融发展水平较低城市获益更大,这是“雪中送炭”的表现;而沿海城市、高行政级别城市、对外开放程度较高城市获益更多,这则是“锦上添花”的表现。(3)机制分析发现,数字普惠金融能够通过提升城市人力资本和增强城市创新能力来吸引城市FDI流入。本文的实践启示是,要提升数字普惠金融“数智化”水平,关注数字普惠金融对城市FDI流入的异质性影响并差异化施策,重视发挥数字普惠金融提升人力资本和增强创新能力的作用,助力城市吸引和利用外资。

Attracting and utilizing foreign direct investment(FDI)more vigorously is a key task at present.Existing studies rarely explore the heterogeneous impact of digital inclusive finance on FDI inflows to cities from the perspectives of geographical location,administrative level,financial development,and openness.Nor do they examine how digital inclusive finance affects FDI inflows to cities from the angles of human capital and innovation capability.Using panel data of 285 H cities in China from 2011 to 2021,this paper finds that:(1)Digital inclusive finance can attract FDI inflows to cities,and the results still hold after using instrumental variable estimation,lagging the core explanatory variable by one order,and other methods for robustness checks.(2)The attraction effect of digital inclusive finance on FDI inflows to cities is heterogeneous.Cities with lower levels of financial development benefit more,which is a“timely help”performance;while coastal cities,cities with higher administrative levels,and cities with higher degrees of openness benefit more,which is a“icing on the cake”performance.(3)Mechanism analysis reveals that digital inclusive finance can attract FDI inflows to cities by improving urban human capital and enhancing urban innovation capability.The practical implications of this paper are to improve the“digitalization”level of digital inclusive finance,pay attention to the heterogeneous impact of digital inclusive finance on FDI inflows to cities and adopt differentiated policies,emphasize the role of digital inclusive finance in improving human capital and enhancing innovation capability,and help cities attract and utilize foreign investment.