IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/teinso/v87y2026ics0160791x26002022.html

Promoting urban–rural equality: The impact of government digital transformation on public service equality through fiscal decentralization

Author

Listed:
  • Chen, Sheng
  • Tang, Tingting
  • Liu, Zijun

Abstract

Urban–rural public service equality is a critical indicator of national governance effectiveness and contributes to reducing persistent urban–rural disparities. Drawing on the perspectives of technological empowerment and fiscal decentralization, this study investigates the impact of government digital transformation on urban–rural public service equality in China. The analysis was based on panel data from 260 Chinese cities between 2011 and 2021. The results showed that government digital transformation significantly improves urban–rural public service equality, and the findings remain robust across a range of robustness checks. The underlying mechanisms include correcting fiscal expenditure bias and enhancing local fiscal capacity, with the former focusing on adjusting the structure of fiscal spending and the latter on improving the use of existing funds. In addition, the effects are most pronounced in eastern regions, large cities, and cities with polycentric structures, highlighting the spatial penetration of government digital transformation. Based on these findings, the study recommends integrating government digital transformation with fiscal systems, optimizing the allocation of fiscal resources, and tailoring policies to local conditions to further advance urban–rural public service equality.

Suggested Citation

  • Chen, Sheng & Tang, Tingting & Liu, Zijun, 2026. "Promoting urban–rural equality: The impact of government digital transformation on public service equality through fiscal decentralization," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:teinso:v:87:y:2026:i:c:s0160791x26002022
    DOI: 10.1016/j.techsoc.2026.103413
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160791X26002022
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.techsoc.2026.103413?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:teinso:v:87:y:2026:i:c:s0160791x26002022. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/technology-in-society .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.