数字技能缓解了农户收入不平等吗?——基于黄河流域2893户农户微观调查数据

Do Digital Skills Alleviate Rural Households’Income Inequality?—Based on Micro-survey Data of 2,893 Rural Households in the Yellow River Basin

本文基于黄河流域沿线省份2893份农户微观调研数据,通过普通最小二乘回归模型、机制检验模型和分组回归模型实证分析数字技能对农户收入不平等的影响、作用机制和异质性特征。研究结果显示:(1)数字技能对农户具有增收效应,且能缓解农户收入不平等;(2)数字技能能够通过促进耕地流转、增强社会网络和缓解信贷约束三条路径缓解农户收入不平等;(3)数字技能对中西部地区农户收入不平等的缓解作用不存在显著差异,但随着受教育水平提高,数字技能对农户收入不平等的缓解作用增强;(4)数字技能可以缓解农户农业收入和其他收入不平等,却加剧了务工收入不平等。此外,线上商务技能对收入不平等的缓解作用最大,生活社交技能次之,网络学习技能的缓解作用最小。针对研究发现,应着力提高农户的数字技能、针对不同农户特点设计相对应的数字技能提升策略以及加强数字技能在农业生产中的应用,以实现农户共享数字红利,促进共同富裕。

Reducing income inequality among rural households is important for achieving the goals of social stability and common prosperity.As a new type of livelihood resource,digital skills are applied to many scenes,such as rural life and agricultural production,which is conducive to changing the distribution of rural households’income.Therefore,it is necessary to explore the impact of digital skills on rural households’income inequality.This will provide theoretical guidance and practical support for alleviating rural income inequality,promoting rural revitalization,and achieving common prosperity.Based on micro-survey data of 2,893 rural households in provincial-level regions along the Yellow River Basin,this paper explores the impact,mechanism and heterogeneity characteristics of digital skills on income inequality of rural households through the OLS regression model,the mechanism test model,and the group regression model.The results are as follows.First,digital skills have an income-enhancing effect on rural households and can mitigate income inequality among them.Second,digital skills can mitigate income inequality through three paths:facilitating the transfer of cultivated land,enhancing social networks,and alleviating credit constraints.Third,there is no significant difference in the mitigating effect on rural households in the central and western regions,but the mitigating effect becomes stronger as the level of education increases.Fourth,digital skills reduce inequalities between agricultural income and other income for rural households,but exacerbate income inequality from non-agricultural work.In addition,online business skills play the greatest role in alleviating income inequality,followed by life and social skills,and online learning skills.The marginal contributions of this paper are as follows.First,it examines the impact of digital skills,a new type of livelihood resource,on rural households’income inequality,broadening the perspective of previous research.Second,it reveals the inherent mechanism that digital skills affect rural households’income inequality,inspiring how to alleviate the inequality through digital skills.Third,it examines the difference in the influence of digital skills on rural households’income inequality from the perspectives of region and education level,providing a basis for different households to alleviate income inequality.Fourth,it examines the impact of digital skills on rural households’income inequality from income types and types of digital skills,which enriches previous studies.Based on empirical research,this paper proposes some policy suggestions,such as improving rural households’digital skills,designing corresponding strategies for improving digital skills according to their characteristics,and strengthening the application of digital skills in agricultural production.