Internet Development and Urban–Rural Consumption Inequality: Evidence from Chinese Cities
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Dear author,
This paper, using panel data from 263 cities in China, attempts to construct a two-way fixed-effects model and a threshold model to explore the non-linear effect and mechanism of Internet development on urban-rural consumption. The article is well written and I believe it is in line with the journal's standards. However, I think it might be interesting to mention recent studies in the introduction. I really appreciated the explanation of the hypotheses and the Fig. 1 Theoretical Mechanism, which I think needs more commentary. The tables of results, I am referring to Table 1 (Descriptive Statistical Results of Main Variables), could be better commented on, using the literature and motivating the results. I have no particular comments on the analysis of robustness and heterogeneity, however, you could use recent literature to support your results here too, this would increase the quality of your manuscript. I really appreciated the inclusion of a paragraph discussing the limitations of your study and what could be done in the future. However, the conclusion could also be greatly improved, while the section (Practice Implications) is properly constructed. The article needs to be completely revised to improve the editing and the English language.
Best Regards
Moderate editing of English language
Author Response
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Author Response File: 
Author Response.docx
Reviewer 2 Report
See attached.
Comments for author File: 
Comments.pdf
Your English is good, just little polishing needed here and there.
Author Response
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Author Response File: Author Response.docx
Reviewer 3 Report
Reviewer: The authors have explored “Internet Development and Urban-Rural Consumption Inequality: Evidence from Chinese Cities”. The issue is significant. However, I have noticed some caveats in this write-up that might be addressed before publication.
1. In the Introduction section, what is the reference of the first paragraph?
2. In the third paragraph of the introduction, the sentences related to the country of Mexico should be deleted or modified.
3. In the Theoretical Analysis and Research Hypothesis section, what is the reference of the third and fifth paragraphs?
4. Add a review literature section to the paper. The literature review should include the research gap.
5. Refer to the word Figure 1 in the research text. Numbers of all figures and tables should be included in the research text.
6. Add the references of the contents mentioned in section 3.1.1.
7. What are the authors' criteria for selecting control variables? Revise this section according to similar studies that have used these control variables.
8. Perform the necessary pre-tests to select the panel two-way fixed effect model. Such as Correlation matrix and VIF statistics, Unit root test, Hausman test, Cointegration test, and …
9. Support your results with relevant studies.
Author Response
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Author Response File: Author Response.docx
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
Minor editing of English language required
Minor editing of English language required
Author Response
Dear Reviewer:
Thank you for your precious advice on our manuscript titled “Internet Development and Urban-Rural Consumption Inequality: Evidence from Chinese cities”. We have conducted a more comprehensive English revision of this study, which we hope meets with approval.
Best regards to you.
Reviewer 3 Report
The paper is well-improved. But I still have some concerns, after correcting these two things, the article can be accepted.
1. Enter the result of the VIF test in the form of a table in the paper. For this, you can refer to the following article: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-25428-4
2. Authors should show the result of the Hausman test in the text in the form of a table.
Author Response
Please see the attachment.
Author Response File: Author Response.docx
