Abstract Integrating the characteristics of digital technology into industrial production function, this paper constructs a mathematical model of industrial digitalization and industrial income gap, quantifies the level of industrial digitalization, and empirically analyzes the influence and mechanism of industrial digitalization on industrial income gap. It is found that the influence of industry digitalization on industry income gap presents an “ inverted U-shaped ” trend, which is still valid after a series of robustness tests. Heterogeneity test indicates that the “ inverted U-shaped ” influence of industrial digitalization on industry income gap is significant in industries with low technology penetration difficulty, labor-intensive, capital-intensive or strong market attributes, and only presents income gap expansion effect in industries with high technology penetration difficulty or technology-intensive. The mechanism test shows that the optimization of human capital can explain the nonlinear impact of industrial digitization on the industry income gap, but the improvement of production efficiency can only explain the widening income gap. The research conclusions provide theoretical reference and empirical evidence for standardizing the development of digital economy and industrial digitization, optimizing the pattern of income distribution in the new era of digital economy, and promoting common prosperity.
SUN Qunli,PENG Youwei. Whether Digitalization Will Widen the Industry Income Gap: An Intermediary Mechanism Test Based on Human Capital And Production Efficiency. Economic Survey, 2023, 40(3): 088.
2023, Vol. 40 
