数字经济对城乡收入差距的影响研究——来自“宽带中国”战略实施的准自然实验

The Impact of Digital Economy on the Urban-Rural Income Gap—The Quasi-Natural Experiment from the Implementation of the “Broadband China” Strategy

摘要: 缩小城乡收入差距是推动乡村振兴战略的关键问题。本文以“宽带中国”战略的实施作为准自然实验，构建2011~2021年295个地级市面板数据，采用渐进双重差分模型实证检验数字经济对城乡收入差距的影响。结果显示，数字经济显著缩小了城乡收入差距，这一结果经过了一系列稳健性检验后依然稳健。数字经济对东部地区的城乡收入差距影响大于中西部地区。据此，提出强化基础设施建设，推动广泛覆盖、优化政策环境，激发市场活力、加强区域协调发展，缩小地区差距等政策建议。

Abstract: Narrowing the urban-rural income gap is a key issue in promoting the rural revitalization strategy. This paper uses the implementation of the “Broadband China” strategy as a quasi-natural experiment, constructing panel data from 295 prefecture-level cities from 2011 to 2021, and employs a progressive difference-in-difference model to empirically test the impact of the digital economy on the urban-rural income gap. The results show that the digital economy significantly narrows the urban-rural income gap, and this result remains robust after a series of robustness tests. The impact of the digital economy on the urban-rural income gap is greater in the eastern regions than in the central and western regions. Accordingly, policy recommendations are proposed, such as strengthening infrastructure construction, promoting widespread coverage, optimizing the policy environment to stimulate market vitality, and enhancing regional coordinated development to narrow regional disparities.