Measurement and Empirical Research of Digital Financial Development Level

The digital economy has become an important driving force for high-quality economic development, and digital finance, as a key carrier for the integration of the digital economy and modern finance, has significant research value in terms of measurement analysis and theoretical mechanism exploration. To explore the development trend and regional differences of digital finance in China, this study selects 15 provinces and cities in eastern, central, and western China as research objects. Based on panel data from 2014 to 2024, it constructs an indicator system covering digital financial services (DFS), digital financial technology (DFT), digital financial environment (DFE), and digital finance application depth (DFAD). Using the entropy weight method, coupling coordination model, and grey relational model, it analyzes the development level of digital finance in China, the development status of different regions, the degree of coordinated development of various subsystems, and the core driving factors. The study found that: 1) China's digital finance development level is generally on a continuous upward trend, with the eastern region showing a significant advantage; 2) All four subsystems maintain a continuous growing trend, but their contributions differ significantly, with digital financial services (DFS) being the core driving force and the digital financial environment (DFE) being the main weakness; 3) The coupling and coordination of various indicators has gradually improved from severe imbalance to excellent coordination, with the development trends in the east, central, and western regions being consistent, but the pace of progress differing slightly; 4) Indicators with high contribution rates to development exhibit a development pattern of “ policy environment - technological innovation - service scenarios” and this pattern shows heterogeneity in different regions. Based on this, the future development of digital finance in China should focus more on system synergy and structural optimization, taking the improvement of the digital financial environment (DFE) as a breakthrough to promote the integration of digital financial technology innovation and service scenarios, thereby enabling digital finance to better serve the real economy and help achieve high-quality economic development.