An empirical analysis of the nexus between digital financial inclusion, industrial structure distortion, and China’s energy intensity

Stimulating the shift to low-carbon energy and decreasing energy intensity are crucial strategies for green growth. Reducing energy intensity is an important measure to achieve the goal of “double carbon” and building a beautiful new China. Based on the provincial panel data of China from 2011 to 2020, this paper empirically tests the relationship among digital financial inclusion, industrial structure distortion, and energy intensity by using the spatial Durbin model and the intermediary effect method. The results show that the development of digital financial inclusion can promote the decline of energy intensity, and industrial structure distortion has a partial intermediary effect in the relationship between digital financial inclusion and energy intensity. Because of this, it is important to speed up the development of digital financial inclusion, increase the innovation of digital financial inclusion products and services, strengthen the supervision of digital financial inclusion, and reduce the distortion of the industrial structure so that digital finance can play its full role in reducing energy intensity.