数字经济发展何以收敛城乡收入差距——基于中国280个地级市的实证研究

How Does the Development of the Digital Economy Narrow the Urban-Rural Income Gap?—An Empirical Study Based on 280 Prefecture-Level Cities in China

中国的城乡之间存在显著的收入差距,数字经济作为我国经济高质量发展的重要助力,其发展为缩小这一差距提供了可能。为了讨论数字经济发展对城乡收入差距的影响,证明数字经济能够通过扩大市场规模进而收敛城乡收入差距,本文选择使用能够更深入体现城乡之间的经济和社会差异的市级面板数据——2012年至2021年全国280个地级市的面板数据,通过双固定效应模型实证研究了数字经济发展对城乡收入差距的影响,使用中介效应模型检验了市场规模的中介作用,并进行了详细的稳健性检验、门槛检验与内生性检验。研究发现:数字经济发展能够收敛城乡收入差距,市场规模在其中起到中介作用,通过门槛模型的检验发现数字经济对城乡收入差距的影响存在着双门槛效应,并发现数字经济对于城乡收入差距的影响效应呈“U型”。本研究扩充了现有数字经济对城乡收入差距影响的机制研究,以期为推动数字经济在缩小城乡收入差距方面发挥更大作用提供依据与启发。There exists a significant income disparity between urban and rural areas in China. The digital economy, as an important driver of China’s high-quality economic development, offers possibilities for narrowing this gap. To discuss the impact of digital economy development on the urban-rural income disparity and to demonstrate that the digital economy can converge this disparity by expanding market size, this paper selects municipal panel data from 2012 to 2021 for 280 prefecture-level cities across China, which can more deeply reflect the economic and social differences between urban and rural areas. Through a dual fixed-effects model, the paper empirically investigates the influence of digital economy development on the urban-rural income disparity. It uses a mediation effect model to test the mediating role of market size and conducts detailed robustness checks, threshold tests, and tests for endogeneity. The findings reveal that the development of the digital economy can converge the urban-rural income disparity, with market size serving as a mediator. Through threshold model testing, it is found that the impact of the digital economy on the urban-rural income disparity exhibits a double-threshold effect, and the effect of the digital economy on the urban-rural income disparity takes a “U-shaped” form. This study expands the existing research on the mechanisms through which the digital economy influences the urban-rural income disparity, aiming to provide a basis and inspiration for promoting a greater role of the digital economy in narrowing the urban-rural income disparity.