The spatial effects of green-innovation coupling and coordinated development from the perspective of digital inclusive finance: Evidence from China

The coupling and coordinated development of green-innovation (GICD) is a critical strategy to overcome the harmonious cohabitation challenge between economic development and ecological environment. Using data from Chinese provinces between 2011 and 2020, we investigate the impact of digital inclusive finance on green innovation by building a green-innovation coupling and coordinated development index evaluation system with coupled and coordinated scheduling and spatial Durbin model. This study conducts empirical tests to explore the mechanisms and nonlinear relationship from the perspectives of economic development level and fiscal decentralization. The findings indicate that digital inclusive finance can improve GICD and demonstrate the existence of spatial spillover effect. Additionally, digital inclusive finance enables the enhancement of GICD through the economic development level and curbs it through fiscal decentralization, and there is a nonlinear relationship between them. This study offers a better understanding of the relationship between digital inclusive finance and the coupling and coordinated development of green-innovation. This study also provides policy recommendations to boost green innovation coordinated development regarding a distinctive digital inclusive finance framework.