Research On The Impact Of Internet Development On Resident Consumption In China

At present,under the background of great uncertainty in the domestic,China is accelerating the construction of a new development dynamic that focuses on domestic flow and features positive interplay between domestic flow and international engagement.Therefore,how to boost domestic demand and further release the consumption potential of residents to promote the sustainable recovery of consumption has become the key to the high-quality and sustainable economic development in the future.As the core technology supporting modern economic development,the Internet has penetrated into the whole process of resident consumption,the development of the Internet has provided new impetus for China’s economic transformation and the reform of consumption patterns,therefore has had a profound impact on resident consumption.From the production and circulation of products and the allocation of consumption resources,to the construction of online consumption channels and the reshaping of the shopping environment,also to the financial services such as electronic payment and consumer credit.The positive effect of Internet development on resident consumption has been widely demonstrated by scholars.Although its impact on the consumption structure and the urban-rural consumption gap has always been controversial.In reality,with the development of the Internet,new formats,new scenarios,and new hotspots of residents’ consumption are still emerging.Therefore,to solve this problem,the research needs to be carried out in combination with China’s actual national conditions and residents’ daily consumption behavior to better utilize the consumption promotion effect of the Internet.In view of this,on the basis of combing and learning from relevant research literature from inland and abroad,and grasping the changing trend of China’s Internet development and resident consumption,this paper adopts a variety of measurement methods and econometric models,combining the two-way interaction mechanism between Internet and household consumption,this paper conducted a systematic empirical study on the impact of Internet development on household consumption along the research path of the direct and indirect impacts of Internet use and Internet finance on resident consumption level,resident consumption structure,and urban-rural consumption gap.The main research contents,methods we used and main conclusions are as follows:First of all,based on the analysis of the development status and evolution trend of the Internet in China,and further build empirical models from the macro perspectives to study the impact relationship and heterogeneity between Internet development and resident consumption level.The results show that from 2001 to 2020,the penetration rate of the Internet in the whole country and the eastern,central and western regions showed a rapid upward trend.The regional gap in the penetration rate of the Internet continued to narrow,and the number of Internet users in urban and rural areas also maintained a rapid growth rate.The imbalance between urban and rural Internet development narrowed year by year.The estimation results of simultaneous equation model based on macro panel data show that the development of Internet plays an important role in improving the consumption level of Chinese residents,and this improvement is achieved by expanding residents’ survival consumption,enjoyment consumption and development consumption.Moreover,the impact of the development of the Internet on different types of consumption also shows some differences.Secondly,this paper adopts the factor analysis method to establish an system from the three dimensions of the overview of the Internet use,use scope and frequency,use depth and importance to measure the micro Internet usage level of households,and the measurement results of factor analysis method show that there are obvious urban-rural and regional differences in the Internet usage level.In urban and eastern regions households,the Internet usage level is significantly higher than that in rural areas,central and western regions households;The improvement of income level and education level will help to improve the level of household Internet usage;There are significant differences in the Internet usage level between different generations of family members.The 2SLS regression results based on CFPS micro data also show that the improvement of household Internet usage level helps to promote the synchronous growth of their survival,enjoyment and development consumption,and eventually has a significant positive effect on the consumption level.Thirdly,based on the previous research,in-depth research was conducted on the consumption structure,which is the core issue of consumption.This paper classifies the consumption types based on the QUAIDS model in order to measure the household consumption structure,and studies the regulatory effect of Internet usage level on household consumption structure.The results of QUAIDS model measurement show that the expenditure elasticity of food,clothing,transportation and communication consumption are less than 1,which belongs to the category of household necessities;The expenditure elasticity of health care,education,entertainment,housing,household goods and miscellaneous consumption are greater than 1,belonging to the category of household luxury goods.The impact of Internet usage level on the upgrading of household consumption structure includes both promotion effect and inhibition effect,and the promotion effect of Internet usage level on the upgrading of household consumption structure shows a gradually increasing change characteristic.The heterogeneity test results show that the Internet usage level has the most comprehensive and obvious promotion effect on the upgrading of consumption structure of urban families and eastern families,as well as high-income families,low educated families and young families.Forthly,The goal of upgrading the consumption structure includes reducing the urban-rural consumption gap.this paper based on the Theil index measurement results of the urban-rural consumption gap,uses PVAR model to identify the two-way impact relationship between Internet development and the urban-rural consumption gap.The Theil index measurement results show that,after entering the 21 st century,with the rapid growth of China’s economy,the overall consumption gap and the urban-rural structural consumption gap have always existed,but both of them show a decreasing trend,and the urban-rural enjoyment consumption gap is significantly larger than that of development and survival consumption gap.The estimation results of PVAR model show that the initial development of the Internet has expanded the overall urban-rural consumption gap to a certain extent,and with the deep development of the Internet,the expansion of the overall urban-rural consumption gap has also become a continuous driving force for the Internet development;From the perspective of structural consumption gap,there is also a two-way promotion relationship between Internet development and urban-rural survival consumption gap,forming a benign interaction mechanism with urban-rural development consumption gap.Although Internet development can narrow the urban-rural enjoyment consumption gap,the inherent development consumption inequality between urban and rural areas will inevitably lead to the slowdown of Internet development.Finally,as Internet finance is an important channel for residents to use Internet for consumption,this paper conducts an empirical analysis of the non-linear characteristics and spatial spillover effects of Internet finance development efficiency on residents consumption.At the same time,from the perspective of consumption ability and willingness,this paper selects the intermediary variables of financial availability and credit demand to test their intermediary role in the impact of Internet finance usage on household consumption.The results of the three-stage super efficiency SBM-DEA method show that from 2011 to 2020,the development efficiency of Internet Finance in China showed a stable trend of increasing year by year,but it has always been in the stage of decreasing returns to scale.Only six economically developed provinces(cities)such as Beijing,Shanghai and Jiangsu achieved DEA effectiveness in 2020,that is,the overall development trend of Internet finance is positive,but the development speed needs to be further accelerated.The estimation results of PSTR model show that the development efficiency of Internet finance has a significant role in promoting resident consumption level,but with the improvement of economic development level,this promotion effect is weakened,that is,compared with economically developed regions,the development of Internet finance has a better effect on promoting resident consumption in economically underdeveloped regions.The estimation results of the double weight SDM show that under the double weight matrix of geographical distance and economic distance,the improvement of the development efficiency of Internet finance can effectively improve the overall consumption level of residents,but the positive spillover effect in consumption structure is not obvious.The test results of the intermediary effect model show that Internet finance can not only increase the channels for families to enjoy financial services and the convenience of obtaining financial resources,improve the current and expected consumption ability of families,but also help guiding families to generate and release consumption credit demand and increase their subjective consumption willingness,so as to improve the level of household consumption and promote the upgrading of household consumption structure through the above two paths.Based on the above research conclusions,this paper believes that in the face of the future development trend of supporting economic growth mainly by resident consumption,at the macro level,China should pay attention to input-output efficiency on the basis of maintaining the stable growth of Internet penetration rate,so as to ensure that the Internet development can effectively promote resident consumption while narrowing the digital divide;At the micro level,China should intensify efforts to popularize and promote Internet applications,continue to improve the Internet usage level of households,and cater to residents’ preference for upgrading their consumption structure by appropriately lowering the Internet financial threshold and guiding consumer credit demand,so as to promote resident consumption.This paper conducts a multi-angle macro and micro empirical study on the impact of Internet development on resident consumption,which has a certain reference value for China to formulate more targeted and feasible policies related to Internet development to promote consumption in the future.