The Impact of Mobile Finance Use on Livelihoods of Farmers in Rural China

Mobile finance plays an important role in supporting productive activities and improving the basic livelihoods of rural households. Using three-round panel data and employing control function approach to address the self-selection bias issue, this study shows that mobile finance use significantly increases farmers' livelihoods, measured by farm income and per capita consumption in China, with a larger marginal effect for smallholders and credit-constrained farmers. We further divide mobile finance into two types and reveal that the mobile payment use plays a larger role in farm income, while the mobile banking use has a larger impact on household consumption.