农村电子商务服务点、贸易成本与家庭网络消费

Rural E-Commerce Service Points,Trade Costs,and Online Household Consumption

农村地区具有较大的消费潜力,是培育完整内需体系、全面促进消费以及建立强大国内市场的重要组成部分。本文基于行政村网络代购点数量与家庭微观消费数据匹配,研究村级电子商务服务点建设对家庭网络消费的影响。利用2014年商务部、财政部和国务院扶贫办共同实施的“电子商务进农村综合示范县”计划带来的政策冲击作为工具变量,研究发现,每增加1个村级网络代购点,家庭人均网络消费平均提高41.23%,占家庭人均网络消费对数值均值的36.81%,这表明网络代购点建设的经济效益是显著的。异质性分析发现,在人力资本水平越低、贸易成本越高的行政村,网络代购点建设对家庭网络消费的促进作用也越大,这表明网络代购点建设有助于克服交易障碍和降低贸易成本,缩短农村居民与市场的距离。进一步分析发现,网络代购点建设显著增加了家庭网络消费多样性,提高了网络消费频率,且未挤出家庭线下消费。本文研究表明,电子商务服务点建设对打破农村数字技术使用壁垒、降低消费空间不平等以及建立强大国内市场具有重要的政策意义。

Rural areas have strong consumption potential and are an important part of cultivating a complete domestic demand system, promoting comprehensive consumption as well as building a strong domestic market. This paper investigates the impact of village-level e-commerce service points on online household consumption by matching the number of e-commerce service points in administrative villages with household consumption data. Using the policy shock brought by the project of building “demonstration counties in promoting e-commerce in rural areas” launched jointly by the Ministry of Commerce, the Ministry of Finance, and the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development in 2014 as an instrumental variable, the study finds that the increase of one village-level e-commerce service increases per capita online household consumption by 41.23% on average, accounting for 36.81% of the mean value of the logarithm of per capita online household consumption, indicating a significant economic effect. The heterogeneity analysis found that the positive effect of e-commerce service points on online consumption was greater in administrative villages with lower human capital and higher trade costs, which indicates that the construction of e-commerce service points helps reduce transaction barriers and trade costs, and shortens the distance between rural residents and markets. Further analysis reveals that e-commerce service points significantly diversify online household consumption, increase the frequency of online consumption, and do not crowd out traditional consumption. This paper shows that e-commerce service points have important policy implications for overcoming barriers to rural use of digital technology, reducing urban-rural spatial inequality in consumption, and building a strong domestic market.