Abstract
Introduction
Improving the resilience of the cotton supply chain is critical for advancing high-quality industrial development and securing the supply chain of the textile industry. As a core instrument for optimizing resource allocation and easing financing constraints, agricultural financial services may foster supply chain resilience.
Methods
Based on panel data from 12 major cotton-producing provinces in China covering 2014-2023, this study employs fixed-effects models and mediation models to examine the impact of agricultural financial service development on cotton supply chain resilience and its underlying mechanisms, with resilience and financial service levels measured by the entropy method.
Results
(1) The development of agricultural financial services significantly improves cotton supply chain resilience. (2) These services strengthen resilience primarily by enhancing total factor productivity (TFP) in cotton production. (3) Positive effects are observed across all four sub-dimensions of resilience (resistance, recovery, restructuring, and renewal capacity); the facilitating effect on renewal capacity ranks the highest, while that on recovery capacity is the weakest.
Discussion
The findings reveal a TFP-based transmission channel and heterogeneous effects across resilience sub-dimensions, providing targeted policy implications for optimizing financial support for the cotton industry.