Research On The Income Distribution Effect Of Digital Economy Development Under The Background Of Common Prosperity In China

Common prosperity is an essential requirement of socialism,an important feature of Chinese modernization,and a fundamental way to solve the problem of unbalanced and insufficient development and to meet the growing needs of the people for a better life in China.As the basic content of realizing the goal of common prosperity,it is inevitable to examine the path of realizing common prosperity without exploring the optimization of income distribution structure.In the digital era,the high innovation,strong penetration and wide coverage of the digital economy are inherently consistent with the optimization of income distribution structure and the promotion of common prosperity in China,and the realization of the goal of common prosperity must be embedded in the process of digital economy development.Therefore,it is of great theoretical and practical significance to study the income distribution effects of China’s digital economy development in order to narrow the income distribution gap in the digital era and accelerate the realization of common prosperity for all people.Based on a systematic review of existing literature and relevant theories,this paper subdivides the income distribution gap into three dimensions: urban-rural income gap,regional income gap and group income gap,and focuses on the effects of China’s digital economy development on each subdimension of income distribution in the context of common prosperity through theoretical logical analysis,econometric empirical tests and case studies,with the following main conclusions.First,on the digital economy and the urban-rural income gap.The digital economy development in China can significantly reduce the urban-rural income gap,i.e.,the cost reduction effect,channel expansion effect,and poverty reduction effect generated by the digital economy development tend to bring faster income level improvement effect for rural residents compared with urban areas,and thus reduce the urban-rural income gap,and mainly through three mechanisms: digital literacy improvement effect,income structure optimization effect,and entrepreneurship probability improvement effect The main mechanisms are digital literacy,income structure optimization,and entrepreneurship.In other words,compared with urban areas,the digital economy helps to improve rural residents’ digital literacy,optimize the income structure of rural households,and help rural potential entrepreneurial households to start their own businesses,thereby reducing the urban-rural income gap.The results of the heterogeneity analysis show that the digital economy is more likely to promote the income level of households with low physical capital and low social capital,thus reflecting the generality and universality of the digital economy,but the empirical results that tend to raise the income level of households with high human capital do not reflect the generality and universality of the digital economy.This may be due to the fact that the digital economy supported by digital technology has knowledge-intensive characteristics,which shows that it is more favorable to the income level of highly educated and knowledgeable groups.Second,on the digital economy and regional income disparities.Overall,the development of China’s digital economy can significantly reduce the regional income gap,i.e.,the diffusion-trickle-down and income-generating equalization effects generated by the development of the digital economy tend to bring about faster income level improvement effects for residents in relatively economically backward regions compared to developed regions,which in turn promotes the reduction of the regional income gap in China,and this conclusion,after considering the endogeneity issue and undergoing a series of robustness tests The conclusion still holds after considering the endogeneity issue and undergoing a series of robustness tests.From the results of the mechanism analysis,the regional factor flow promotion effect,the market integration effect and the industrial structure optimization effect are the three channels through which the digital economy reduces the regional income gap.In other words,compared with developed regions,the development of digital economy helps to promote the flow of factors to economically backward regions,to promote the integration of economically backward regions into the domestic market,and to promote the optimization of industrial structure in economically backward regions,thus bringing them faster income level improvement effects and thus reducing the regional income gap.Third,on the digital economy and group income gap.On the whole,the development of China’s digital economy can significantly narrow the group income gap and help reduce the relative deprivation of households within groups,i.e.,the cost reduction effect,channel expansion effect and poverty reduction effect generated by the development of the digital economy tend to bring faster income level improvement effect for low-income groups compared to high-income groups,which in turn promotes the narrowing of the group income gap in China.In terms of time effect,the effect of digital economy on the reduction of group income gap has a tendency of time enhancement and shows significant sustainability.From the results of the mechanism analysis,the improvement of digital literacy level and thus the reduction of their relative deprivation is one of the channels through which the digital economy reduces the intragroup income gap.From the results of the heterogeneity analysis,highly educated groups,female groups,unmarried groups,non-farm household groups,groups with party membership,and Internet-using groups tend to receive higher income from the development of the digital economy.Fourth,about the case study.First,it is clear from the future goals and main directions that the Zhejiang Common Prosperity Demonstration Zone as a realistic case study of the income distribution effects of China’s digital economy development in the context of common prosperity has a strong fit and can provide realistic support for the research conclusions of this paper to a certain extent.Secondly,from the analysis of the theoretical logic,it can be seen that the digital economy is mainly empowered by helping the three main objectives of the construction of Zhejiang Common Prosperity Demonstration Zone,namely,urban-rural gap,regional gap and income gap.Finally,from the analysis of the practice model,we can see that the specific practice model of digital economy can be abstractly summarized as "block economy","mountain and sea collaboration" and "giving benefits to the people"."The three models are consistent with the reduction of urban-rural gap,regional gap and income gap respectively.Based on the existing literature,the possible innovation points and marginal contributions of this paper are mainly reflected in the following three aspects: first,the innovation of research perspective.Among the existing studies on common prosperity,most of them are based on a qualitative perspective to explore the connotation,characteristics and possible realization paths of common prosperity,but few of them explore how the digital economy can promote the goal of common prosperity through the improvement of income distribution from the perspective of empowerment.In view of this,this paper incorporates the digital economy,income distribution and common prosperity into the same analytical framework,and examines how the digital economy empowers income distribution with a combination of qualitative and quantitative analysis methods,which to a certain extent makes up for the shortcomings of the existing studies.Second,the innovation of research content.On the one hand,few existing studies on income distribution have placed it in the context of common prosperity and empirically examined the income distribution effects of the digital economy in terms of three sub-dimensions of income distribution,namely,urban-rural income gap,regional income gap,and group income gap.In view of this,this paper empirically examines the income distribution effects of the digital economy with certain marginal contributions in the context of common prosperity,starting from the three subdivision dimensions of income distribution.On the other hand,few scholars have studied the income distribution effect of the digital economy based on realistic cases.This paper further examines the income distribution effect of China’s digital economy development in the context of common prosperity with the help of case studies in conjunction with the construction practice of Zhejiang Common Prosperity Demonstration Zone,which has certain marginal contribution.Third,the innovation of research method.In the existing related literature,there are few case study-based methods to study the impact of digital economy on income distribution or common prosperity.In view of this,this paper selects Zhejiang Common Prosperity Demonstration Zone as a real case,analyzes in depth the Zhejiang experience of digital economy empowering the construction of Common Prosperity Demonstration Zone,and summarizes and summarizes its experience through theoretical logic analysis and practical model analysis,in order to provide a certain degree of theoretical guidance and experience reference for the construction of Common Prosperity Demonstration Zone in China.