跨越数字鸿沟:智能手机对老年人劳动参与的影响

Crossing the Digital Gap:The Impact of Smartphones on the Labour Participation of the Elderly

促进老年人劳动参与是应对人口老龄化挑战、实现积极老龄化的重要举措之一,智能手机的普及为提高老年人劳动参与概率与质量带来新的可能。文章基于2016年中国老年社会追踪调查数据,探究了智能手机使用对老年人劳动参与的作用和机制。研究发现:智能手机的使用能够显著提高老年人劳动参与概率,采用稳健性估计与工具变量克服内生性问题后,该结论依然成立;影响机制的检验结果显示,智能手机使用通过扩大和巩固老年人的社会网络,进而促进了其劳动参与。因此,推进智能手机的普及和适老改造工作,提高老年人的智能手机使用能力,巩固和拓展老年人社会网络关系,有助于老年人跨越数字鸿沟,强化智能手机在老年人劳动参与过程中的促进作用。

Promoting labour participation among the elderly is one of the important initiatives to meet the challenges of population ageing and achieve active ageing,and the popularity of smartphones brings new possibilities for improving the probability and quality of labour participation among the elderly.This article explores the role and mechanisms of smartphone use on the labour participation of the elderly based on data from the 2016 Chinese Longitudinal Aging Social Survey.The study finds that the use of smartphones significantly increases the probability of labour participation among the elderly,and this finding remains valid after robust estimation and instrumental variables are used to overcome the endogeneity problem.Therefore,it is necessary to promote smartphone penetration and age-appropriate adaptation,improve the ability of older people to use smartphones,consolidate and expand their social network relationships to help them cross the digital gap and strengthen the role of smartphones in facilitating their labour participation.