Do Entrepreneurial Village Cadres Improve Rural Subjective Well-Being? Empirical Evidence from China

Improving the well-being of rural residents remains a major policy challenge in developing countries. Previous studies have largely neglected the role of village leadership in influencing residents’ well-being. This study addresses this gap by examining the relationship between entrepreneurial village cadres (EVCs), defined as village leaders with entrepreneurial experience, and the subjective well-being (SWB) of rural residents in China. Using nationally representative data from the 2022 China Rural Revitalization Survey (CRRS), we found that EVCs significantly improve rural residents’ SWB. These results are robust to a series of identification strategies, including instrumental variable estimation and propensity score matching. Mechanism analysis reveals that EVCs exert their positive influence through three key channels: promoting income growth, enhancing democratic governance, and improving public services. Further heterogeneity analysis suggests that the effects of EVCs on SWB are more pronounced among non-poor households and in villages with external financial support. These findings enrich the literature on grassroots governance and well-being economics, while also offering practical implications for aligning leadership recruitment with broader goals of inclusive rural development.