The effects of FinTech development on corporate employment

IF 4.8 2区经济学 Q1 BUSINESS, FINANCE

International Review of Economics & Finance Pub Date : 2025-05-15 DOI:10.1016/j.iref.2025.104172

Xin Shi , Yuwen Zhou

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Abstract

Using a region-level FinTech index calculated from account-level data provided by Ant Finance Service Group, we examine how FinTech development affects corporate employment. Drawing on a sample of 3277 non-financial A-share listed companies in China from 2011 to 2019, we find that firms with tighter financial constraints hire significantly more employees in cities with more developed FinTech services, which is consistent with the economic mechanism whereby FinTech alleviates financing constraints. Further analysis reveals that FinTech development intensifies bank loan competition, enabling financially constrained firms to gain greater access to credit. Additionally, FinTech development reduces under-investment (under-hiring) in employees caused by labor-related financing needs. At the city level, FinTech development has a significant positive impact on local employment, indicating that it also has aggregate effects. Overall, our findings suggest that FinTech can mitigate the distortive effects of credit market imperfections on the labor market, thereby helping to alleviate unemployment issues.

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金融科技发展对企业就业的影响

利用蚂蚁金服提供的账户级数据计算的区域级金融科技指数，我们研究了金融科技发展如何影响企业就业。我们以2011 - 2019年中国a股3277家非金融类上市公司为样本，发现金融科技服务更发达的城市，金融约束更严格的企业雇佣的员工明显更多，这与金融科技缓解融资约束的经济机制是一致的。进一步分析表明，金融科技的发展加剧了银行贷款竞争，使资金受限的公司能够获得更多的信贷。此外，金融科技的发展减少了因劳动力相关融资需求而导致的员工投资不足（招聘不足）。在城市层面，金融科技发展对当地就业有显著的正向影响，表明它也具有总体效应。总体而言，我们的研究结果表明，金融科技可以缓解信贷市场不完善对劳动力市场的扭曲效应，从而有助于缓解失业问题。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

International Review of Economics & Finance Multiple-

CiteScore

7.30

自引率

2.20%

发文量

253

期刊介绍： The International Review of Economics & Finance (IREF) is a scholarly journal devoted to the publication of high quality theoretical and empirical articles in all areas of international economics, macroeconomics and financial economics. Contributions that facilitate the communications between the real and the financial sectors of the economy are of particular interest.