农村电商发展对城乡消费差距的影响

The Impact of Rural E-commerce Development on the Consumption Gap between Urban and Rural Areas

农村电商发展带动“农产品上行”和“工业品下行”,已成为推动乡村振兴与城乡融合的重要举措,影响着农村和城市的消费结构,但也可能引发新的城乡消费差距问题。基于需求层次理论,以2010-2020年中国省级面板数据为对象,分析了农村电商发展对城乡消费水平差距和结构差距的影响,并进一步探索了普惠金融的调节效应。实证发现,农村电商发展与城乡消费差距存在“U型”影响结构,但现阶段农村电商发展水平远低于拐点临界值,因此总体上农村电商发展显著抑制城乡消费差距。城乡收入差距在农村电商与城乡消费差距关系之间发挥了中介效应。进一步分析表明,普惠金融发展水平越高的地区,农村电商对城乡消费差距的抑制效应越弱。普惠金融对城乡消费均有促进作用,但对城镇的消费影响强度更高,这是导致普惠金融存在逆向调节效应的原因。

The development of rural e-commerce drives the“upward trend of agricultural products”and the“downward trend of industrial products”,becoming an important measure to promote rural revitalization and urban-rural integration.It affects the consumption structure of rural and urban areas,but may also trigger new issues of consumption gaps between urban and rural areas.Based on the hierarchy of needs theory and online consumption theory,this study analyzed the impact of rural e-commerce development on the urban-rural consumption level and structural gap using provincial panel data from 2010 to 2020 in China,and further explored the moderating effect of inclusive finance.Empirical results show that there is a“U-shaped”influence structure between rural e-commerce development and urban-rural consumption gap.However,the current level of rural e-commerce development is far below the critical value of inflection point,so overall,rural e-commerce development significantly inhibits urban-rural consumption gap.The urban-rural income gap plays a mediating role in the relationship between rural e-commerce and urban-rural consumption gap.Furthermore,in regions with higher levels of inclusive finance development,the inhibitory effect of rural e-commerce on the urban-rural consumption gap is weaker.Inclusive finance has a promoting effect on both urban and rural consumption,but has a higher intensity on urban consumption,which is the reason for the reverse regulatory effect of inclusive finance.