关键词: 城市数字金融, 外商直接投资, 非线性效应, 梅特卡夫法则

Abstract: This paper discusses the economic effect and the underlying mechanism of urban digital finance on foreign direct investment (FDI) in theory. Empirically, this paper makes an econometric analysis based on the panel data of 256 cities at or above the prefecture level in China from 2011 to 2018. The results show that urban digital finance has a significant positive impact on foreign direct investment, which can become a new driving force for cities to absorb foreign direct investment under the new development paradigm. Urban digital finance not only directly affects foreign direct investment, but also indirectly has a positive effect on foreign direct investment through digital infrastructure. It shows that the promotion of urban digital finance on FDI shows a significant non-linear characteristic of increasing “marginal effect”, which indicates that the Internet “Metcalfe law”, “Moore?s law” and “Davido?s law” play a joint role in the process of cities absorbing FDI in China; the promotion of urban digital finance on FDI also shows a significant geographical difference, gradually decreasing from the east to the central and then to the west region in China. These conclusions provide policy enlightenment for China to promote the deep integration of digital economy and real economy, accelerate the construction of digital infrastructure, and build a new high-level opening-up system.

Key words: Urban Digital Finance, Foreign Direct Investment, Nonlinear Effect, Metcalfe Law