The development of digital inclusive finance in China can help alleviate the problems of the “three rural areas” and contribute to rural revitalization. The impact of digital inclusive finance on rural revitalization is examined by multiple linear regression, mediated effect model, and threshold effect model in a sample of 30 provinces in China from 2011 to 2020. It is found that (1) the digital inclusive finance index and its sub-indicators - the breadth of digital financial coverage and depth of digital financial use - can promote rural revitalization in China, but the digitalization degree of its sub-indicators does not have a significant linear effect on rural revitalization, but a “U” shaped relationship of first inhibiting and then promoting, with 2017 as the boundary. (2) The regional heterogeneity test reveals that the promotion effect of the digital financial inclusion index and its sub-indicators of digital financial coverage breadth and digital financial usage depth on rural revitalization is more significant in the eastern coastal and central inland provinces, and insignificant in the western remote areas. (3) The mediating effect test finds that digital inclusive finance in China can contribute to rural revitalization by promoting economic growth in rural areas and narrowing the income gap between urban and rural areas. (4) The threshold effect test reveals that there is a single threshold effect of digital inclusive finance and its three sub-indicators on rural revitalization in China. When the digital inclusive finance index and the three sub-dimensions are below the threshold value, they have a facilitating effect on rural revitalization, and after crossing the threshold value, their facilitating effect on rural revitalization becomes more significant. Based on the empirical analysis results, this paper puts forward suggestions for improving the development mechanism of digital inclusive finance, formulating differentiated financial support policies and strengthening financial supervision according to regional differences, and establishing a long-term mechanism for rural revitalization, to promote China’s rural revitalization.

Corporate managers are the central figures of corporate activity who can control the strategic direction of companies. The company’s use of financial derivatives can avoid risks and has an important impact on the value of the company. This study examines A-share listed firms in Shanghai over the period 2011–2020, uses an OLS panel and a moderating effects model, and investigates the impact of financial derivatives on firm value from the perspective of managers’ characteristics. We find that financial derivatives can significantly increase the enterprise value of Chinese listed companies, while exchange rate derivatives have a stronger impact on enterprise value. We also find that the higher the proportion of managers who hold shares and have a financial background, the better the effect of firms using financial derivatives. These research results are of great significance to the application of financial derivatives and provide companies with risk management decisions after COVID-19.

The development of green finance helps to promote the transition to a low-carbon economy. Using data from 30 provinces in China from 2001-2019, we empirically examine the impact of green finance on the transition to a low-carbon economy and further explore the mediating role of low-carbon technological innovation in this facilitation process. The study finds that (1) green finance can significantly contribute to the transformation of the low-carbon economy from China as a whole. However, when China is divided into four regions: east, central, west and northeast, the contribution of green finance to the low-carbon economic transition in the west is not significant. (2) After adding low-carbon technologies to the model, green finance still has a significant contribution to the low-carbon economic transition, but this contribution decreases with the intervention of low-carbon technologies. (3) There is a strong spatial dependence between green finance development and low-carbon economic transformation in 30 Chinese provinces. However, the dependence among provinces tends to weaken after 2011. And the overall green financial development in China shows a positive spillover effect on the low-carbon economic transition. Based on the analysis results, several countermeasures are proposed to promote the further development of China's low-carbon economy.

This paper uses A-share chemical companies from 2011 to 2019 to examine the probit model’s ability to provide insight on why China's listed companies choose to use financial derivatives. The empirical results show that reducing the cost of financial distress, avoiding underinvestment and increasing firm size are positive determinants of listed companies' use of financial derivatives. However, the empirical results of this paper are also different from the results of international studies. The reduction of expected taxes, substitution factors and agency problems are not the determinants of listed companies' use of financial derivatives. Few listed Chinese companies use derivatives for hedging which may be the cause of the deviation problem. Further analysis shows that managers' interests are not the motivation for listed companies to use derivatives. Thus, it can be seen that the primary goal of Chinese listed companies using derivatives is to avoid hedging risks. This paper helps to predict the possibility that listed companies make hedging decisions depending on the relevant factors and provides policy guidance for the government to implement a modern development strategy for the derivatives market.