报告题目：Does Digital Finance Upgrade Trickle-down Consumption in China?

报告人：  周先波教授

报告时间：2021年12月16日15：40-16：25

报告地点：腾讯会议号：133 249 763

报告摘要：

This paper explores the impact of digital finance on trickle-down consumption of nonrich households in China, especially in its first-tier cities and the neighboring provinces of the China Greater Bay Area. Previous studies have ignored the credit constraint relaxed by the development of digital finance in the interpersonal comparison study on the household consumption decision. Exploiting the China Household Finance Survey data, we find that there is still a trickle-down consumption pattern in China, and that digital finance significantly improves the consumption of the nonrich households in keeping up with the consumption of richer households. Results by regions show that the trickle-down consumption effect varies with time and geographic dimensions, which further strengthens our main conclusion in Guangdong, a core region in the GBA. Heterogeneity analysis reveals that there is a mild difference of this effect between rural and urban households. Furthermore, we find that relaxing the liquidity constraint is the primary mechanism for the positive effect of digital finance on the trickle-down consumption among nonrich households. Our conclusion is robust in various robustness tests. Some policies are suggested to alleviate consumption inequality by developing digital finance and boosting a spontaneous trickle-down consumption pattern in developing countries.

报告人简介：

周先波教授，中山大学岭南学院教授，应用经济学专业硕士生、博士生导师，从事计量经济学的教学和研究工作。研究方向为非参数和半参数估计方法及应用；微观计量经济学估计方法及应用；消费经济、家庭金融、劳动经济研究。在国际和国内重要学术杂志上发表论文多篇，发表论文的学术期刊包括Journal of Econometrics、Econometric Theory、Journal of Business & Economic Statistics、China Economic Review、Economics Letters、《经济研究》、《管理世界》、《经济学（季刊）》、《统计研究》、《系统工程理论与实践》等。