Rural digital credit and residential energy consumption: Evidence from the agricultural production perspective

Lack of capital hindered the development of agricultural production and the residential energy consumption transition in rural areas, but, with the continuous advancement of digital finance technologies, rural digital credit eased the liquidity constraint of agricultural production, which influenced residential energy consumption. However, few studies explored the relationship between rural digital credit and residential energy consumption. Hence, the instrumental variable (IV) method, the mediation effect model and the survey data that covered 295 effective samples were used to analyze the impact of rural digital credit on residential energy consumption from the agricultural production perspective in this study. The results indicated that rural digital credit resulted in a significant decline of the consumption of traditional energy products, but impacts of rural digital credit on electricity consumption and the new-style energy products consumption were not significant. Further, rural digital credit reduced traditional energy products consumption via boosting the level of agricultural mechani-zation and the adoption of precision fertilizer applying technique. This paper was conducive to not only developing the green credit markets in rural areas, but also enhancing the residential energy consumption transition and sustainable development.