互联网使用能提高农村居民幸福感吗?——基于信息获取视角的一个实证检验

Will Internet Use Make Rural Residents Happier?——An Empirical Test Based on the Perspective of Information Acquisition

互联网使用已成为影响农村居民幸福感的重要因素,但两者之间的影响机制仍有待深入探讨。基于2016年中国家庭追踪调查数据,采用倾向得分匹配方法(PSM),实证检验互联网使用对农村居民幸福感的影响。结果表明:互联网使用能显著提升农村居民幸福感,利用生活满意度和对未来信心程度两个指标替代幸福感进行稳健性检验和采用工具变量法处理内生性后,这一效应依然显著。分样本研究表明,互联网对农村居民幸福感的影响符合边际效用递减规律,低收入、女性、受教育程度小学以下、从事自我雇佣工作的农村居民享受更多互联网使用带来的幸福效应。进一步分析发现,信息获取是互联网使用影响农村居民幸福感的主要中介变量,互联网获取信息重要性对农村居民幸福感影响远甚于电视、报纸、期刊、广播等传统媒介。因此,需要积极推进“数字乡村”战略,通过互联网使用提升农村居民幸福感。

Internet use has become an important factor affecting the happiness of rural residents,but the influence mechanism between them still needs to be further explored.Based on the China Family Panel Studies data 2016,this article adopts Propensity Score Matching method(PSM),demonstrate the impact of internet use on the happiness of rural residents.Research results show that:Internet use can significantly improve the happiness of rural residents,using two indicators of life satisfaction and confidence in the future to replace well-being for robustness test and instrumental variable method to deal with endogeneity,this effect is still significant.A sample study shows that:The impact of the internet on the well-being of rural residents conforms to the law of diminishing marginal utility,low-income,female,under-primary and above-undergraduate education,self-employed rural residents use the internet to bring more happiness effect.Further analysis found that,information acquisition is the main mediating variable of internet use affecting rural residents happiness,the importance of internet access to information has far greater impact on rural residents happiness than traditional media such as television,newspapers,magazines,radio and so on.The conclusion of this paper provides a reference for the promotion of“Internet+”strategy in rural areas.