Effect and Mechanism of Inclusive Finance on Poverty Reduction and Income Increase under the Background of Targeted Poverty Alleviation: An Empirical Study of 12 Cities in the Eastern, Western and Northern Guangdong

With the advancement of targeted poverty alleviation, our country has completed the goal of poverty alleviation on schedule. In the post-poverty era, consolidating poverty alleviation achievements and deepening targeted poverty alleviation require inclusive finance to play a greater role. Based on the measurement of the development level of inclusive finance in 12 cities in the eastern, western and northern Guangdong during the period of targeted poverty alleviation, this paper uses the fixed effect quantile regression model and the mediating effect model to empirically analyze the poverty reduction and income increase effect and mechanism of inclusive finance. The main conclusions are as follows: inclusive finance development is conducive to poverty reduction and income increase of rural residents, which affects more on rural low-income groups compared with middle and high-income groups. But for rural low-income groups, the effect of poverty reduction and income increase is mainly achieved through the intermediary effect of economic growth. Consequently, this paper puts some policy suggestions forward such as improving the supply structure combined with optimizing the supply mode of inclusive finance, deepening the development of the poverty alleviation mode of “inclusive finance + industrial projects” and improving the financial quality of rural residents.