The Impact of Informatization on Farmers’ Disposable Income——— Theoretical model and empirical testing

The issue of “increasing farmers’ income” is a focal point of agricultural and rural development. With the continuous advancement of information technology, exploring whether informatization can promote farmers’ income growth holds significant theoretical and practical implications. By employing a simple mathematical framework, this study constructs models of capital and labor flows between urban and rural sectors under the backdrop of informatization. It analyzes the reasons for the impact of increased societal informatization on farmers’ income. Utilizing panel vector autoregressive models with data from 25 provinces, the study empirically examines whether informatization can indeed contribute to increasing farmers’ income, considering three dimensions of informatization. Subsequently, it investigates the impact of informatization on farmers’ income in the eastern, central, and western regions of China. The findings indicate that, nationally, the increased application of information technology in industries can promote farmers’ income growth. However, for the eastern region, the improvement in informatization alone does not necessarily lead to increased farmers’ income. In contrast, for the central and western regions, increased application of information technology in commerce and the enhancement of information network infrastructure can facilitate farmers’ income growth.