Research on the Impact of Digital Finance on the Industrial Structure Upgrading of the Yangtze River Economic Belt from the Perspective of R&D Innovation

According to the panel data of 11 provinces (including two municipalities) in the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB) for 2011–2020, we empirically test the influence of digital finance on the structural upgrade of industries of the YREB using the least squares dummy variable estimation (LSDV) of the fixed effect model (FEM). R&D innovation is taken as the mediating variable to explore the mediating effect of R&D innovation in digital finance and industrial structural upgrading of the YREB. The empirical results indicate that the advancement of digital finance is able to advance upgrading the industrial structure of the YREB, and its promotion effectiveness has regional heterogeneity. Digital finance plays the largest role in accelerating industrial structural upgrading downstream of the YREB, followed by the midstream. The upstream plays the smallest role; R&D innovation has some mediating effects in digital finance, promoting structural upgrading of industries of the YREB. Therefore, we propose accelerating the development of digital finance, improving the digital financial system, and promoting regional coordinated regional development. Moreover, we propose to raise the R&D innovation level, further advance the industrial upgrading of YREB, advance the coordinated development of the YREB, and achieve common prosperity.