The Impact Of Internet Use On The Wage Income Of Rural Residents

In recent years,China has made great achievements in the battle against poverty,and has historically solved the problem of absolute poverty.However,the report of the20 th Party Congress points out that China still has the problem of unbalanced and insufficient development,and the gap between urban and rural regional development and income distribution is still large.The issue of increasing farmers’ income is still the core of solving the "three rural issues".By analysing the changes in the structure of farmers’ income,this paper finds that wage income accounts for an increasing proportion of rural residents’ income,and with the popularisation and improvement of China’s Internet infrastructure in rural areas,rural residents are increasingly using the Internet,which has a certain impact on their wage income.Therefore,this paper studies the impact of Internet use on rural residents’ wage income,hoping to provide a new perspective for rural residents to increase their income and help to promote rural revitalisation and solve the "three rural issues".Firstly,this paper analyses the mechanism of Internet use on rural residents’ wage income from a theoretical perspective based on information asymmetry theory,occupation search theory and farmers’ behaviour theory,based on a review of relevant literature at home and abroad.Secondly,an empirical analysis is conducted using data from the China Family Panel Studies(CFPS)2020 to study the specific impact of Internet use on rural residents’ wage income:(1)OLS and QR models are constructed to analyse the specific impact of Internet use on rural residents’ wage income.The regression results show that Internet use has a significant positive impact on the wage income of rural residents.Multiple robustness tests using replacement of explanatory variables and propensity score matching method were also conducted to verify the robustness of the results.(2)Sub-sample regressions on age,gender and region revealed that there were differences in the effects of Internet use on the wage income of different groups of rural residents,with Internet use having a greater incremental effect on the wage income of young people,men and rural residents in the eastern provinces.(3)Examining the mechanism of the impact of Internet use on rural residents’ wage income,the mediating effect test found that non-farm employment and the accumulation of human capital were the mediating variables of the impact of Internet use on rural residents’ wage income,and that Internet use would ultimately act on wage income by affecting rural residents’ non-farm employment and enhancing their human capital.(4)Further analysis was conducted on the impact of different Internet use channels-Internet learning,Internet work and Internet information access-on rural residents’ wage income.From the regression results,the different uses of the Internet all have a significant positive effect on rural residents’ wage income,but there are differences in the extent of their effects,with Internet access to information having the largest income-increasing effect,followed by Internet work,and Internet learning having the smallest contribution to rural residents’ wage income.Based on theoretical and empirical analyses,this paper puts forward targeted policy recommendations: the state should further promote the improvement of Internet infrastructure in rural areas,increase the guidance of Internet use for rural residents,optimise the information dissemination function of the Internet,and strengthen the promotion function of Internet use on income increase for rural residents.Possible innovations of this paper are:(1)In terms of research perspective,while previous research perspectives have focused more on the meso and macro levels,this paper uses CFPS2020 data to study the impact of Internet use on rural residents’ wage income from a micro perspective.(2)In terms of research content,non-farm employment and human capital accumulation are used as mediating variables to explore how Internet use affects rural residents’ wage income,and to refine the impact of different channels of Internet use on rural residents’ wage income.(3)In terms of research methodology,OLS regression,QR regression and PSM are applied in combination with the latest CFPS2020 data to explore the specific impact of Internet use on the wage income of rural residents of different age,gender and region in a sub-sample.