Can Digital Finance Drive Green Growth and Sustainable Development? Evidence From 118 Countries Across Development Status and Crisis Contexts

ABSTRACT This study investigates whether and under what conditions digital finance advances green growth (GG) and broader sustainable development (SD) objectives in a financially volatile, climate‐constrained, and developmentally unequal world. Using annual data for 118 developed and developing countries from 2004 to 2022, we construct four Principal Component Analysis (PCA)‐based indices of fintech adoption (FTA), financial development (FD), digital financial literacy (DFL), and GG. The framework distinguishes GG as an operational pathway within wider equity, capability, resilience, and we