| Common prosperity is the essential requirement of socialism,and narrowing the income gap between urban and rural areas is the proper meaning of common prosperity.At present,the battle against poverty has won an all-round victory,but problems such as unbalanced development between urban and rural areas and large income distribution gap between urban and rural areas have become important obstacles to high-quality economic development,and narrowing the income gap between urban and rural areas has become particularly important.As a new economic form,the development of digital economy has the characteristics of innovation,revolution and scale.It can reduce communication costs,enhance economic exchanges between urban and rural areas,and affect urban and rural income distribution.The development of digital economy has become an important aspect of my country’s economic development.driving force.Therefore,it is of great significance to explore the impact of the development of the digital economy on the income gap between urban and rural areas,and to deeply analyze its mechanism of action to achieve common prosperity.Based on the panel data of 16 cities in Shandong Province from 2012 to 2021,this paper first uses the principal component analysis method to measure the development level of the digital economy in various cities in Shandong Province,and subdivides the development level of the digital economy into the development environment of the digital economy and the market potential of the digital economy,and then used the Theil index to measure the income gap between urban and rural areas in Shandong Province.Through the correlation test,it is found that there is a negative correlation between the development of the digital economy and the income gap between urban and rural areas.This paper further theoretically analyzes the mechanism of the impact of digital economy development on the income gap between urban and rural areas and puts forward corresponding research hypotheses.In order to verify the three studies proposed in this paper,this paper constructs an econometric model to empirically test the impact of the development of the digital economy on the income gap between urban and rural areas.First of all,this paper uses the fixed effect model to find that the digital economy can significantly narrow the urban-rural income gap;secondly,this paper uses the method of replacing explanatory variables,changing the sample size method and instrumental variable method to find that the digital economy’s inhibitory effect on the urban-rural income gap is robust;third,the article divides Shandong Province into three different regions: East Shandong,Central Shandong and South Shandong to investigate the heterogeneity of the impact of digital economy development on the income gap between urban and rural residents.Fourth,by constructing a mediating effect model,this paper finds that agricultural production efficiency and rural labor transfer play a partial mediating role in the impact of the digital economy on narrowing the income gap between urban and rural areas.Based on the above research,the following suggestions are given: optimize the rural digital industry structure,improve rural infrastructure construction,develop rural digital inclusive finance,adjust agricultural production models,and cultivate and introduce digital talents. |
