"Positive"or"Negative":Digital Transformation and Non-agricultural Employment
The digital economy is emerging as a significant driving force for global economic and social development due to the rapid innovation and application of digital technologies such as cloud computing,mobile Internet,big data,and artificial intelligence.The digital transformation presents both opportunities and challenges for rural residents'employment.On the one hand,digital transformation is beneficial to the convenience and modernization of rural residents'lives,and also changes the employment of the new generation of rural labor.Digital transformation is beneficial to non-agricultural employment for rural labor because it provides many new jobs.On the other hand,scholarly literature and empirical evidence indicate that the issue of imbalanced digital development is increasingly pronounced due to factors such as disparities in resource endowments and technological progress.The thresholds and biases associated with digital transformation may hinder non-agricultural employment opportunities for rural residents.Therefore,it is meaningful to analyze whether the impact of digital transformation on non-agricultural employment is positive or negative.This paper theoretically analyzes the impact of digital transformation on non-agricultural employment for rural labor based on the population mobility theory.This paper utilizes data from the China Household Finance Survey(CHFS)to construct a balanced panel,using a fixed effects model and an instrumental variable approach.This paper analyzes the role of digital transformation in addressing concerns related to non-agricultural employment,thereby releasing rural labor and enhancing the accessibility of employment opportunities.Furthermore,as non-agricultural employment is a complex phenomenon,this paper examines the heterogeneity of the impact of digital transformation on non-agricultural employment in terms of economic environment,rural infrastructure,and household characteristics.This paper finds that digital transformation has a positive impact on non-agricultural employment for rural households.It significantly improves the quality of employment and contributes to an increase in household income and consumption.Mechanism analysis shows that digital transformation promotes non-agricultural employment by increasing agricultural land transfer and machinery use rates and broadening social networks.The positive effect of digital transformation is more significant in areas with relatively backward economic development and poor community network infrastructure.For households with heads with lower education levels,older adults,or no minor children,digital transformation has a more significant role in promoting non-agricultural employment.This paper argues that it is meaningful to conduct digital skills training for rural labor and increase their digital literacy to enhance the employment level.The government should establish a comprehensive information service platform for rural areas to assist laborers in collecting pertinent employment information,staying abreast of the latest policies,and facilitating online communication and matching among various stakeholders.Last but not least,the government should allocate specific funds to implement the"Network Village Access"project,providing households in rural areas with wireless routers and access to fiber optic networks.This paper makes three significant contributions to existing literature.Firstly,micro-data is used to measure household digital transformation.Existing literature predominantly adopts a single indicator to measure digitalization,which may be one-sided.This paper employs the entropy weight method to calculate household digitalization,which addresses the limitations of using a single variable and allows for a comprehensive assessment of micro-level household digitalization.Secondly,this paper performs a theoretical analysis to examine the influence of digital transformation on non-agricultural employment,leveraging insights from the population mobility theory.Thirdly,this paper analyzes how micro-level householdly digital transformation affects non-agricultural employment from perspectives of land transfer,agricultural machinery usage,and social networks,which holds both theoretical and practical significance.
Digital TransformationNon-agricultural EmploymentRural RevitalizationCommon Prosperity
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