数字经济对城乡收入差距的影响：基于第三次分配的视角

The Impact of the Digital Economy on the Urban-Rural Income Gap: A Perspective Based on the Third Distribution

摘要: 数字经济已成为推动中国经济增长的新引擎，探究其在缩小城乡居民收入差距方面的作用机制具有重要意义。本文基于2013~2022年我国31个省市区的面板数据，运用熵值法测度了各地区的数字经济水平与第三次分配的发展现状，实证检验了数字经济对城乡收入差距的非线性影响。研究发现；数字经济与城乡居民收入差距呈“倒U”型关系；异质性分析显示：这种影响存在区域差异，仅在东部地区显著存在，并且随着数字经济水平分位数的提升，其对缩小城乡居民收入差距的效果逐渐减弱；进一步的检验表明：数字经济通过推动第三次分配发挥调节作用，有助于缩小城乡收入差距。本文不仅拓展了数字经济缩小城乡差距的研究视角，还为我国缓解城乡收入差距、实现共同富裕提供了重要的理论支撑和政策启示。

Abstract: The digital economy has become a new engine to promote China’s economic growth, and it is of great significance to explore its role mechanism in narrowing the income gap between urban and rural residents. Based on the panel data of 31 provinces, cities, and regions in China from 2013 to 2022, this paper measures the level of digital economy and the development status of the third distribution in each region by using the entropy method, and deeply analyzes the non-linear impact of digital economy on the income gap between urban and rural residents. The study finds that there is a significant “inverted U”-shaped relationship between the level of digital economy and the income gap between urban and rural residents; the analysis of heterogeneity shows that there are regional differences in this effect, which is significant only in the eastern region, and its effect on narrowing the income gap between urban and rural residents diminishes with the increase of the quartile of the level of digital economy. Further tests indicate that the digital economy plays a regulatory role by promoting the third distribution, thus helping to narrow the urban-rural income gap. This paper expands the research path on how the digital economy narrows the urban-rural gap, and provides an important theoretical basis and policy inspiration for China to alleviate the urban-rural income gap and realize common prosperity.