A Study on Income Distribution Effect of Rural E-commerce Development: An Empirical Evidence from “Taobao Village”
LI Hongbing1, WANG Shuang1, ZHAO Chunming2
1. School of Economics and Management,Beijing University of Posts and Telecomminication,Beijing 100876,China; 2. School of Economics and Business Management,Beijing Normal University,Beijing 100875,China
Abstract Based on the matching of Alibaba “taobao village” data from 2009 to 2017 with China’s county-level indicators, this paper uses a variety of empirical schemes, such as the Intermediary Effect Model and PSM Model, to test the impact of development of rural e-commerce on farmers’ income increase and urban-rural income gap. The study finds that, on the whole, the development of rural e-commerce has significantly promoted farmers’ income, and the effect is greater in central and western regions than that of eastern regions, and lower in the areas with high marketization level than that of low marketization level. From the perspective of the influence mechanism of E-commerce, the level of regional economic development plays a positive role in promoting the effect, while the government’s financial support shows a negative regulating effect on it. At the same time, the intermediary channel of promoting farmers to return to their hometowns for employment has also significantly promoted the increase of farmers’ income. Further research finds that the impact of rural e-commerce on the income gap between urban and rural areas shows a significant inverted “U-shaped” trend, which is mainly realized through the mechanism of industrial structure upgrading.
LI Hongbing,WANG Shuang,ZHAO Chunming. A Study on Income Distribution Effect of Rural E-commerce Development: An Empirical Evidence from “Taobao Village”. Economic Survey, 2021, 38(1): 037.
2021, Vol. 38 
