Research On The Impact Of Internet Development On The Agricultural Industry Upgrading

Under the background of comprehensively promoting rural revitalization in China,the traditional mode of agricultural development can no longer match the strategic requirements of agricultural modernization,and the upgrading of agricultural industry has become an inevitable requirement.With the rapid penetration of Internet technology into all walks of life,bringing new changes to traditional industries,this paper will explore the impact of Internet development on the upgrading of agricultural industry,which is essential to promote the agricultural industry to enjoy the dividends of Internet development,and change the development mode to achieve high-quality development.For this reason,this paper propounds the following research questions: can the development of Internet promote the upgrading of agricultural industry? Does its influence have spatial spillover effect and nonlinear characteristics? What mechanism does the Internet development affect the upgrading of agricultural industry?To answer the above questions,the main research contents of this paper include:firstly,based on the industrial upgrading theory,new economic geography and endogenous economic growth theory,this paper combs the mechanism of the impact of Internet development on agricultural industrial upgrading,analyzes and puts forward hypotheses from four aspects: the direct impact of Internet development on agricultural industrial upgrading,spatial spillover effect,nonlinear impact and conduction path of impact.Secondly,the panel data of 30 provinces(autonomous regions and municipalities)in China from 2003 to 2018 are used to empirically test the corresponding theoretical hypotheses,including benchmark regression using panel fixed effect model to examine the direct impact of Internet development on agricultural industrial upgrading;Spatial econometric method,quantile regression model,threshold regression model and mediation effect model are used to test the spatial relationship between Internet development and agricultural industry upgrading,the nonlinear impact of Internet development on agricultural industry upgrading,and the conduction role of consumption upgrading in the impact of Internet development on agricultural industry upgrading,and a series of robustness tests are carried out.From above mentioned analysis,the main findings of the paper are as follows.First,for the upgrading of agricultural industry,there is a wide disparity in the upgrading of agricultural industry between different provinces in China.On the whole,the trend of agricultural industry upgrading in various regions is relatively stable,and the upward trend in some regions is more obvious.For the development of Internet,China’s rural Internet has developed rapidly,and the development level of rural Internet in various regions has shown an upward trend,with a relatively uniform overall distribution.Second,the benchmark regression results show that the development of Internet can significantly promote the upgrading of agricultural industry.In terms of control variables,the level of economic development,the level of rural financial development and financial support for agriculture have a positive role in promoting the upgrading of agricultural industry,and the number of agricultural employment has a hindering effect on the upgrading of agricultural industry,but it is not statistically significant.Third,the analysis results based on spatial measurement method show that,firstly,there is a significant positive spatial correlation between Internet development and agricultural industry upgrading,with strong spatial agglomeration characteristics.Secondly,the results of spatial Durbin model show that the development of Internet not only promotes the upgrading of agricultural industry in this region,but also drives the upgrading of agricultural industry in surrounding regions.The upgrading of agricultural industry is mainly impacted by the spatial spillover effect of the development level of Internet in adjacent regions.Fourth,the results of nonlinear impact analysis show that the development of Internet can play a greater role in areas with high level of agricultural industry upgrading;The development of the Internet has a single threshold effect in the process of affecting the upgrading of the agricultural industry,with a threshold of 2.689,showing a significant positive but marginal decreasing nonlinear characteristic.Fifth,consumption upgrading has an partly mediation effect in the process of Internet development promoting the upgrading of agricultural industry.Sixth,after solving the endogenous problem of benchmark regression and a series of robustness tests such as incorporating spatial lag terms of control variables,the research results of this paper remain robust.Based on the above research conclusions,and take the actual situation of China’s Internet development and agricultural industry upgrading into account,the following policy suggestions are given.First,reasonably allocate Internet resources and promote agricultural industry upgrading according to local conditions;Second,pay attention to the spillover effect of Internet development and coordinate the promotion of regional agricultural industry upgrading;Third,actively respond to the Rural Revitalization Strategy and speed up the upgrading of rural Internet infrastructure;Fourth,give full play to the industrial synergistic effect of rural logistics and release the consumption potential of rural residents.