Digital Technology Adoption and Subjective Well‐Being in China: Evidence of Heterogeneous Effects Across Urban and Rural Contexts

This paper examines whether and how digital technology adoption affects subjective well‐being in China, and investigates the heterogeneous effects across urban‐rural, regional, income, and gender dimensions. Using nationally representative data from the 2022 China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) comprising 9439 individuals across 25 provinces, we employ county fixed‐effect ordered logit regressions as our baseline model, supplemented by OLS estimations for robustness, and address endogeneity concerns through instrumental variable (IV) analysis using education and cognitive ability as instruments. We find that mobile device and computer use are significantly associated with higher individual well‐being. The effects are heterogeneous: gains are concentrated in rural areas, among women, and in middle‐income households, while they are weaker in affluent urban contexts with high digital penetration. Mechanism analysis suggests that technology enhances well‐being through both economic channels, such as income opportunities, and social channels, including connectivity and emotional support. These findings highlight the conditional nature of digital dividends and suggest that digital inclusion can act as a compensatory force in disadvantaged settings. Policy efforts should prioritize expanding access and digital literacy for rural and low‐income groups, while focusing on the quality of digital engagement in high‐income urban areas.