Local FinTech development, industrial structure, and north-south economic disparity in China

The widening economic disparity between the northern and southern regions has constrained China's overall and further economic development. We investigate whether FinTech can mitigate the north-south economic disparity in China. Through regressing a panel dataset encompassing 285 Chinese cities from 2008 to 2021, the results confirm the effectiveness of local FinTech development. The enhancement of local FinTech development by 1% will result in a reduction of north-south economic disparity by 0.13%. The mechanism test reveals that local FinTech development contributes to the advancement of industrial gradient structure and fosters enhancements in industrial ownership structure, thereby narrowing the north-south economic disparity. Note that industrial structure can achieve more positive impacts if the local FinTech development crosses a certain threshold.