IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/telpol/v47y2023i9s0308596123001271.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Digital dividend or digital divide? Digital economy and urban-rural income inequality in China

Author

Listed:
  • Peng, Zhuangzhuang
  • Dan, Ting

Abstract

This study investigates the impact of the digital economy on income inequality between urban and rural areas. Panel data covering 194 cities in China from 2011 to 2018 are employed to construct a digital economy development index using the entropy value method. Nonlinear and threshold models are executed to ascertain how digital economy development influences the urban-rural income gap in China. The results reveal a U-shaped relationship between the digital economy and the urban-rural income gap. Furthermore, the threshold effect analysis demonstrates a digital divide in diverse regions due to different urbanization stages. This study furnishes empirical evidence for attaining balanced urban-rural development in the digital economy in developing countries.

Suggested Citation

  • Peng, Zhuangzhuang & Dan, Ting, 2023. "Digital dividend or digital divide? Digital economy and urban-rural income inequality in China," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(9).
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:telpol:v:47:y:2023:i:9:s0308596123001271
    DOI: 10.1016/j.telpol.2023.102616
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0308596123001271
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.telpol.2023.102616?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.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Olena Ivus & Matthew Boland, 2015. "The employment and wage impact of broadband deployment in Canada," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 48(5), pages 1803-1830, December.
    2. Wang, Xiang & Shao, Shuai & Li, Ling, 2019. "Agricultural inputs, urbanization, and urban-rural income disparity: Evidence from China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 67-84.
    3. Pan, Wenrong & Xie, Tao & Wang, Zhuwang & Ma, Lisha, 2022. "Digital economy: An innovation driver for total factor productivity," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 303-311.
    4. Ofori, Isaac K. & Osei, Dennis B. & Alagidede, Imhotep P., 2022. "Inclusive growth in Sub-Saharan Africa: Exploring the interaction between ICT diffusion and financial development," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 46(7).
    5. Wang, Siliang & Tan, Shukui & Yang, Shengfu & Lin, Qiaowen & Zhang, Lu, 2019. "Urban-biased land development policy and the urban-rural income gap: Evidence from Hubei Province, China," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    6. Ferreira, João J.M. & Fernandes, Cristina I. & Ferreira, Fernando A.F., 2019. "To be or not to be digital, that is the question: Firm innovation and performance," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 583-590.
    7. Xiaolan Fu & Shaheen Akter, 2016. "The Impact of Mobile Phone Technology on Agricultural Extension Services Delivery: Evidence from India," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 52(11), pages 1561-1576, November.
    8. Mehmet Güney Celbis & Denis de Crombrugghe, 2018. "Internet infrastructure and regional convergence: Evidence from Turkey," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 97(2), pages 387-409, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Li, Mengxu & Liu, Jianghua & Chen, Yang & Yang, Zhijiu, 2023. "Can sustainable development strategy reduce income inequality in resource-based regions? A natural resource dependence perspective," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    2. Huang, Jie & Lu, Hongyang & Du, Minzhe, 2025. "Can digital economy narrow the regional economic gap? Evidence from China," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    3. Jianxu Liu & Xiaoqing Li & Shutong Liu & Sanzidur Rahman & Songsak Sriboonchitta, 2022. "Addressing Rural–Urban Income Gap in China through Farmers’ Education and Agricultural Productivity Growth via Mediation and Interaction Effects," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 12(11), pages 1-23, November.
    4. Qiao, Penghua & Liu, Siting & Fung, Hung-Gay & Wang, Chen, 2024. "Corporate green innovation in a digital economy," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 870-883.
    5. Lu, Shan & Peng, Sihan & Shi, Jiaxin & Zhang, Ci & Feng, Yanchao, 2024. "How does digital transformation affect the total factor productivity of China's A-share listed enterprises in the mineral resource-based sector?," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    6. Thonipara, Anita & Sternberg, Rolf G. & Proeger, Till & Haefner, Lukas, 2020. "Assessing the Digital Divide and its Regional Determinants: Evidence from a Web-Scraping Analysis," ifh Working Papers 25/2020, Volkswirtschaftliches Institut für Mittelstand und Handwerk an der Universität Göttingen (ifh), revised 2020.
    7. Yicheng Song & Yuantao Jiang, 2024. "How Does the Digital Economy Drive the Optimization and Upgrading of Industrial Structure? The Mediating Effect of Innovation and the Role of Economic Resilience," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(4), pages 1-16, February.
    8. Shibo Gao & Jing Zhang & Zuopeng Ma & Guolei Zhou & Yanjun Liu & Yuliang Liu, 2025. "Digital Economy Development and Urban–Rural Integration in Northeast China: An Empirical Analysis," Land, MDPI, vol. 14(5), pages 1-24, May.
    9. Jung, Juan & López-Bazo, Enrique, 2020. "On the regional impact of broadband on productivity: The case of Brazil," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(1).
    10. Feng Wang & Wenna Fan & Xiangyan Lin & Juan Liu & Xin Ye, 2020. "Does Population Mobility Contribute to Urbanization Convergence? Empirical Evidence from Three Major Urban Agglomerations in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(2), pages 1-20, January.
    11. Li, Xitong & He, Peiming & Liao, Honglin & Liu, Jindan & Chen, Litai, 2024. "Does network infrastructure construction reduce urban–rural income inequality? Based on the “Broadband China” policy," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 205(C).
    12. Guo, Bingnan & Wang, Yu & Zhang, Hao & Liang, Chunyan & Feng, Yu & Hu, Feng, 2023. "Impact of the digital economy on high-quality urban economic development: Evidence from Chinese cities," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).
    13. Yang Liu & Yanlin Yang & Huihui Li & Kaiyang Zhong, 2022. "Digital Economy Development, Industrial Structure Upgrading and Green Total Factor Productivity: Empirical Evidence from China’s Cities," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(4), pages 1-23, February.
    14. Xu, Ru-Yu & Wang, Ke-Liang & Miao, Zhuang, 2024. "Exploring the impact of digital industry agglomeration on provincial energy efficiency in China: A panel data analysis from 2012 to 2020," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 313(C).
    15. Xiangan Ding & Zhonglin Sheng & Andrea Appolloni & Mohsin Shahzad & Shaojie Han, 2024. "Digital transformation, ESG practice, and total factor productivity," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(5), pages 4547-4561, July.
    16. Anita Thonipara & Rolf Sternberg & Till Proeger & Lukas Haefner, 2023. "Digital divide, craft firms’ websites and urban-rural disparities—empirical evidence from a web-scraping approach [Digital Divide, Websites von Handwerksunternehmen und städtisch-ländliche Disparit," Review of Regional Research: Jahrbuch für Regionalwissenschaft, Springer;Gesellschaft für Regionalforschung (GfR), vol. 43(1), pages 69-99, April.
    17. Tang, Jianjun & Gong, Jiaowei & Ma, Wanglin & Rahut, Dil Bahadur, 2022. "Narrowing urban–rural income gap in China: The role of the targeted poverty alleviation program," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 74-90.
    18. Ping Zhang & Weiwei Li & Kaixu Zhao & Sidong Zhao, 2021. "Spatial Pattern and Driving Mechanism of Urban–Rural Income Gap in Gansu Province of China," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(10), pages 1-29, September.
    19. Li, Wenjuan & Liu, Xinghua & Zhou, Lei, 2025. "The role of digital finance in enhancing export competitiveness: insights from China's listed companies," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    20. Fu, Hongpeng & Guan, Jianxing & Wang, Runzi & Kong, Liangji & Dai, Qinqin, 2024. "How does digitalization affect the urban-rural disparity at different disparity levels: A Bayesian Quantile Regression approach," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).

    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:telpol:v:47:y:2023:i:9:s0308596123001271. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/30471/description#description .

    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.