数字支付能显著降低农户消费不平等吗?

Can Digital Payments Significantly Reduce Consumption Inequality in Rural Households?

居民消费对实现共同富裕以及推动经济长期稳定发展具有重要意义。以往研究主要关注城乡居民消费差距,较少关注农户内部消费不平等问题。鉴于此,基于2017、2019年中国家庭金融调查数据,采用由农户人均消费支出测算的Kakwani指数构建消费不平等测度指标,使用双向固定效应模型和工具变量法实证分析数字支付对农户消费不平等的影响。研究结果表明,数字支付能够显著降低农户消费不平等;机制分析表明,数字支付通过缓解流动性约束和提高消费可及性,进而降低农户消费不平等;异质性分析表明,数字支付对户主年龄更高、受教育水平更低农户消费不平等的缓解作用更大,对发展型消费不平等的缓解作用大于生存型消费。基于此,本文认为应加大对农村数字支付发展的支持力度,推动农村数字普惠金融发展,提升农村居民数字素养,支持农村发展型消费品产业发展。

Resident consumption is of great significance to realizing common prosperity and promoting long-term stable economic development.Previous studies have mainly focused on the consumption gap between urban and rural residents,with less attention paid to consumption inequality within agricultural households.Based on the data of the China Household Finance Survey of 2007 and 2009,this study adopted the Kakwani index calculated by the per capita consumption expenditure of farmers to construct a measure of consumption inequality.Additionally,the impact of digital payments on consumption inequality of farm households is empirically analyzed with a two-way fixed-effects model and instrumental variable method.The study results show that digital payment can significantly reduce the consumption inequality of rural households.The mechanism analysis indicates that digital payment reduces the consumption inequality of rural households by alleviating liquidity constraints and improving the accessibility of consumption.The heterogeneity analysis reveals that digital payment has a more significant effect on alleviating consumption inequality in rural households with higher age and lower education levels of the head of household,with a greater alleviating effect on developmental consumption inequality than survival consumption.Based on this,the study concludes that support for the development of rural digital payments should be increased,promoting the development of rural digital inclusive finance,enhancing the digital literacy of rural residents,and supporting the development of the rural developmental consumer goods industries.