Abstract: The causal impact and the transmission channels through which digital inclusive finance fosters high-quality development at the county scale are indentified by employing county-level panel data covering 103 counties in Yunnan Province from 2014 to 2023, and combining baseline regressions, robustness checks, heterogeneity tests, and a mediation-effects framework. The findings reveal that accelerating the construction of digital inclusive finance invigorates endogenous growth drivers in Yunnan's counties and fully unlocks digital dividends; and that digital inclusive finance boosts county economies by propelling industrial transformation and upgrading, with this linkage operating through a significantly positive mediating channel. Accordingly, the policy that policymakers expedite the extension of digital inclusive finance to the township—village periphery while aligning it precisely with local industrial restructuring, thereby leveraging digital financial tools to catalyze industrial upgrading and deliver a region-wide qualitative leap— is recommended.

Key words: digital inclusive finance, high-quality development, mediation effect, county economy