互联网使用与居民社会资本——基于中国家庭追踪调查数据的研究

Internet Use and Residents’ Social Capital:A Study Based on the Data of China Family Panel Studies

提高社会资本对增强居民幸福感和促进地区经济增长都具有重要意义。本文利用中国家庭追踪调查数据(CFPS),研究了互联网使用对居民社会资本的影响及其机制。研究发现:(1)居民互联网使用以及上网时间的增加能够显著提高其社会资本,这一结论在利用工具变量缓解内生性和排除一系列可能干扰估计结果的因素后依然稳健。(2)机制分析表明,个人使用互联网通过增强亲戚交往联络程度、加深邻里关系、增强人际信任、促进政治参与等渠道影响社会关系网络的密度和大小,从而增加社会资本。(3)进一步的异质性分析还发现,受教育程度更高的个人促进效果更明显,并且,互联网使用在农村地区对认知性社会资本的促进效应更大,在城镇地区对结构性社会资本的促进效应更大。本文的研究表明,加强以5G为代表的互联网基础设施建设、扩大网络使用深度是提高居民社会资本水平的重要途径,有利于增强居民获得感和幸福感。

Improving social capital is important for both enhancing residents’ happiness and promoting regional economic growth. Using data from the China Family Panel Studies(CFPS), this paper investigates the impact of Internet use on residents’ social capital and its mechanisms. It is found that:(1)The increase in residents’ Internet use as well as time spent online can significantly improve their social capital, a finding that remains robust to the use of instrumental variables to mitigate endogeneity and the exclusion of a range of factors that may interfere with the estimated results.(2)Mechanistic analysis suggests that individuals’ Internet use affects the density and size of social networks through channels such as enhancing the degree of relational contacts, deepening neighborhood relations, enhancing interpersonal trust, and promoting political participation, thereby increasing social capital.(3)Further heterogeneity analysis also finds that the promotion effect was more pronounced for individuals with higher education levels, and that the promotion effect of Internet use is greater for cognitive social capital in rural areas and for structural social capital in urban areas. The research in this paper suggests that strengthening the construction of Internet infrastructure represented by 5 G and expanding the depth of Internet usage are important ways to improve residents’ social capital levels, which are conducive to enhancing residents’ sense of access and happiness.