Digital Inclusive Finance Empowers Common Prosperity: Inflection Point and Threshold Effect

Using panel data for 31 Chinese provinces from 2011 to 2023, this paper constructs a common prosperity index and examines the effect of digital inclusive finance. Fixed-effect estimates show that digital inclusive finance significantly promotes common prosperity, with positive effects from coverage breadth, use depth, and digitalization. The relationship is U-shaped, and the turning point differs across regions. Threshold regressions identify two urbanization thresholds (0.695 and 0.855) and one social security threshold (6.907). After these thresholds are crossed, the marginal effect of digital inclusive finance becomes stronger.