Digital Rural Construction and Urban-rural Income Disparity:A U-shaped Relationship
Reducing the income disparity between urban and rural areas is a critical issues to achieve common prosperity.Based on the biased technological progress theory,this study conducts a theo-retical analysis to empirically test the relationship between digital rural construction and urban-rural in-come disparity by using the county-level digital rural development index and economic statistical data.The benchmark regression results show that the impact of digital rural construction on the urban-rural in-come disparity exhibit a U-shaped effect,initially narrowing and then widening the disparity.This result holds true after the endogeneity and robustness tests.From the various dimensions,the impact of digital infrastructure on urban-rural income disparity is in the widening phase,while the impact of rural economy digitization,rural governance digitization and rural life digitization on urban-rural income disparity is in the narrowing phase.Heterogeneity analysis reveals regional differences in the impact of digital rural con-struction on the urban-rural income disparity,with a significant effects in the eastern and central regions but no significant impact in the western regions.The U-shaped effect was observed in both main and non-main grain producing areas.Mechanism studies indicate that skill premium is an important factor hinder-ing the construction of digital countryside from narrowing the urban-rural income disparity.To better le-verage the role of digital rural construction in reducing the urban-rural income disparity,it is necessary to ensure the quality of digital rural development,enhance the digital skills of rural residents,and promote the rational allocation of resources across regions.
digital ruralurban-rural income disparityskill-biased technological progressruralskill premium
NETL
NSTL
万方数据
