人口老龄化背景下互联网使用对农村中老年群体消费的异质性影响研究——基于CHARLS的实证分析

The Heterogeneous Impact of Internet Skills on Elderly Consumption in the Rural China:Based on the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study(CHARLS)

在人口老龄化日益加深的背景下,本文基于中国健康与养老追踪调查数据,构建面板模型,系统考察互联网使用对农村地区中老年群体家庭消费的影响作用。研究发现:互联网使用显著促进农村地区中老年人的家庭消费结构从生存型向发展与享受型消费的转型。控制互联网使用的内生性后,面板工具变量的回归结果表明,互联网使用显著提升了中老年人群在生存型和发展型消费的支出,但对享受型消费无显著影响。异质性分析表明,使用互联网更有利于中年人群、较低教育与收入水平的中老年人的家庭消费结构优化。基于上述发现,研究建议加速推进农村地区互联网基础设施建设,着力解决“银发数字鸿沟”难题,抓住数字经济的发展机遇,通过中老年人数字能力的提升以促进消费、扩大内需。

Based on the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study(CHARLS),this article investigated the impact of internet skills on household consumption of middle-aged and elderly people under the perspective of population aging in rural China.The findings illustrated that there was a significant positive impact of internet skills on the the upgrading of consumption structure from the survival to the development and enjoyment consumption.After controlling for the endogeneity of internet skills,the positive impact of internet skills on survival consumption and development consumption remained stable,but the impact of internet skills on enjoyment consumption was not statistically significant at all.Besides,the results of heterogeneity analysis indicated that internet skills was more beneficial to the consumption of middle-aged families and the consumption of elderly people with relatively low educational level and income level.The relevant agents should seize the development opportunities of digital economy,accelerate the construction of internet infrastructure in the rural areas,try to solve the problem o f“silver digital divide”,and improve elderly people’s digital ability in order to enlarge household consumption and expand domestic demand.