This study investigates the impact of mobile payments on household consumption carbon emissions (HCCE). Using 2017 and 2019 China Household Finance Survey (CHFS) data, we employ a general equilibrium framework alongside Two-Way Fixed Effects and a Bartik-style instrumental variable approach. We find that mobile payment adoption significantly increases HCCE, particularly for developmental and experiential consumption. This emission-increasing effect is driven by relaxed liquidity constraints, consumption upgrading, and reduced payment pain. The impact is stronger among low-to-middle income, rural, and less-educated households. However, low-carbon policies and financial literacy effectively mitigate these effects. This paper contributes novel micro-behavioral insights to the finance-emission nexus.
Yan et al. (Wed,) studied this question.