互联网普及对城乡收入差距的影响

Research on the Impact of Internet Popularization on Urban-Rural Income Gap

摘要: 新时期，缩小城乡收入差距是实现共同富裕的题中应有之意。互联网作为一种通用技术，对经济社会方方面面都产生了巨大影响，包括城乡收入差距。本文从宏观视角出发，运用2010~2016年中国省级数据实证检验了互联网普及对城乡收入差距的影响。研究发现，在样本期间中国互联网普及有效促进了城乡居民人均可支配收入水平的提高，且显著缩小了城乡收入差距；异质性分析发现，中国互联网普及对城乡收入差距的收缩作用存在区域差异性，即仅在东部区域存在显著影响，而在中部区域和西部区域作用不显著。

Abstract: In the new era, narrowing the income gap between urban and rural areas is one of the goals of achieving common prosperity. As a general-purpose technology, the Internet has had a huge impact on many aspects of the economy and society, including the income gap between urban and rural areas. From a macro perspective, this paper empirically tests the impact of Internet popularization on the urban-rural income gap using provincial data in China from 2010 to 2016. The study found that during the sample period, the popularization of the Internet in China effectively promoted the increase of the per capita disposable income of urban and rural residents, and significantly narrowed the income gap between urban and rural areas; the heterogeneity analysis found that there are regional differences in the shrinking effect of China’s Internet popularization on the urban-rural income gap, that is, there is a significant effect only in the eastern region, but not in the central and western regions.