Search Results (13)

Common prosperity is the fundamental driving force of rural revitalization, as well as the foundation for achieving sustainable economic development. The e-commerce to the countryside policy has energized the rural economy, helping to improve household economic resilience and reduce income stratification, thereby promoting the inclusive and sustainable development of the digital economy. Drawing on panel data collected from rural fixed observation points in Henan Province during 2009–2022, this study employs a staggered difference-in-differences (DID) approach to evaluate the impact of China’s e-commerce to the countryside policy on farmers’ income and income inequality. The empirical results reveal that the rural e-commerce policy significantly increases farmers’ income while mitigating income inequality. The underlying mechanisms function through three synergistic pathways: industrial structural upgrading, manifested through tri-sector integration driven by rural enterprise development; factor allocation restructuring, evidenced by productivity gains from optimized labor–capital reallocation; and enhanced market inclusion through digital technology empowerment that lowers participation barriers. Heterogeneity analysis indicates that the e-commerce to the countryside policy exhibits pro-poor characteristics, with its income-enhancing and equalizing effects being particularly pronounced in agricultural areas, traditional villages, county-level civilized villages, underdeveloped regions, registered poverty-stricken villages, and households with low human, physical, and financial capital endowments. These findings confirm the inclusive development efficacy of rural e-commerce among vulnerable populations. Consequently, the study provides a replicable policy implementation framework for achieving common prosperity objectives. Full article

Digital inclusive financial services are an important external force driving the common prosperity of Chinese farmers, while the sustainable development of household livelihoods is an internal guarantee for their common prosperity. The synergistic interaction between internal and external factors is an inherent requirement for promoting the common prosperity of farmers. Based on survey data from 467 households in Zhejiang Province, China, this study incorporates a qualitative comparative analysis method into a sustainable livelihood framework, establishing five antecedent variables and conducting necessity and sufficiency analysis. It has been found that single-factor conditions are not necessary for the common prosperity of farmers. However, the combination of digital inclusive financial services, household livelihood strategies, modern agricultural development, and rural governance conditions can generate multiple equivalent pathways to promote the common prosperity of farmers. These pathways include the synergistic path between digital inclusive finance and the business-based livelihood strategy, the synergistic path of digital inclusive finance, modern agricultural development, and business-based livelihood strategies, and the synergistic path of digital inclusive finance and rural governance for business-based livelihood strategies. In addition, digital inclusive financial services are identified as the core condition influencing common prosperity among farmers, while livelihood capital serves as a supporting condition for promoting their common prosperity. Rural governance and modern agricultural conditions have a substitutive effect on the impact of digital inclusive finance on common prosperity. Full article

The rapid advancement of digital communication and information technologies has significantly influenced rural household income and income inequality. Based on a sample of 2216 farmers from the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS), this analysis combines Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression with Conditional Mixed Process (CMP) estimation to account for endogeneity, evaluating how internet adoption affects both income diversification and inequality patterns among Chinese farmers. The findings reveal three key insights: First, internet use significantly increases farmers’ household income while reducing overall income inequality. Second, the positive impact of internet use on total income is primarily driven by increases in wage and operating income, while the reduction in income inequality is associated with a more equitable distribution of these income sources. Third, human capital plays a moderating role, with high-human-capital farmers benefiting more from internet use in terms of income growth and inequality reduction. Based on these findings, this study suggests that policymakers should promote internet adoption to enhance farmers’ incomes and address income inequality, while paying attention to the varying effects across different human capital groups. These insights provide valuable policy implications for achieving common prosperity in developing countries and regions. Full article

Common prosperity is the core goal of rural revitalization, and the sustainable growth of farmers’ income is an inevitable requirement. This study uses CLDS2014-2018 village- and family-level questionnaire data to reveal how the degree of village organization affects the sustainable growth of farmers’ income, thus providing a reference for local government decision-making to promote the increase in farmers’ income and narrow the income gap at the village level. The results show that the degree of village organization can significantly affect farmers’ income, and the analysis results of the degree of formal organization are consistent with this. Specifically, for every 1% increase in the degree of village organization, the per capita household income will increase by 0.324%, among which, the wage income will increase by 0.226%, the operational income will increase by 5%, the property income will increase by 0.008%, and the transfer income will increase by 0.042%. The estimation results obtained by using instrumental variables are consistent, and the results are robust. At the same time, improving the degree of village organization can also significantly increase the proportion of farmers’ non-agricultural income and narrow the income gap among farmers. On the impact of heterogeneity, it was found that the geographical distance between villages and county and township governments, as well as the political identity and education level of farmers, will affect the role of the degree of organization. The results of the mechanism analysis show that improving the degree of village organization is mainly achieved by promoting the circulation of agricultural land, socializing the service of agricultural machinery, and providing industrial and commercial capital to the countryside to increase farmers’ income. The research revealed that the modernization of rural governance should be accelerated and the degree of village organization should be improved, especially the degree of formal organization, so as to build benign trust and a cooperative relationship between village committees and villagers and implement policies and measures that improve the income of farmers according to local conditions. At the same time, this will strengthen the publicity and education of party members to improve the proportion of rural party members and the education level of farmers. Full article

Rural e-commerce, as a new form of digital economy, is of great significance in promoting the income of rural households and realizing common prosperity. Based on the 2021 China Rural Revitalization Survey (CRRS), the impact of rural e-commerce on farmers’ income and the intra-rural income gap is explored using quantile regression. The results found that (1) rural e-commerce can effectively promote the level of farm household income and alleviate the intra-rural income disparity, with this finding still holding after addressing the potential endogeneity problem and conducting robust-type tests. (2) Rural e-commerce has the most pronounced income-generating effect on low-income households in the southern region; participation in rural e-commerce has a more “center-expanding” effect on households in the secondary education and high material capital groups. (3) Saving production and operation costs, shortening the product circulation chain, and improving access to information are channels through which rural e-commerce affects households’ income. It is recommended to actively promote the deep integration and development of rural e-commerce in rural areas, establish a sound mechanism for bridging the “digital divide”, encourage e-commerce “leaders” to build a perfect industrial chain, and guide smallholders to integrate into the rural e-commerce industrial chain to enjoy the digital dividend. Full article

The new rural collective economy is an important external mechanism for promoting the common prosperity of Chinese farmers. At the same time, the livelihood capital of farmers provides an essential internal support. Achieving an effective match between the two elements is a significant research issue. This article, based on the survey data from 1024 rural households in 43 villages in Zhejiang Province, China, defines the economic functions, social functions, management functions, and cultural functions of the new rural collective economy. The study employs the qualitative comparative analysis method to explore the role of the new rural collective economy in the promotion of the common prosperity of rural households. The necessity analysis shows that the single-factor condition is not the necessary condition for the common prosperity of farmers. However, the adequacy analysis reveals that the linkage and match between the new rural collective economy and the farmers’ livelihood capital can create multiple equivalent pathways for the farmers’ common prosperity. These pathways include the economic function-driven model of the new rural collective economy, the driven model of the high-level livelihoods combined economic functions, the joint model of social function and management functions, the natural capital-driven model, and the joint model of human capital and social capital. Based on these findings, this article proposes targeted governance strategies, including creating pillar industries, strengthening public management services, expanding the scope of social services, and building a coordination mechanism between the new type of rural collective economy and farmers’ livelihood capital. Full article

Increasing farmers’ incomes and empowering rural revitalization through the digital economy are important issues of widespread concern in our society today. From the perspective of aging, this paper uses the 2016, 2018, and 2020 China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) data to examine the impact of Internet usage on farm household income in the realistic context of the severe aging situation in rural areas, to explore the specific mechanisms through which aging plays a role. A further comparative analysis of the heterogeneity of Internet usage and aging effects on different sources of farm household income is performed. The study finds that Internet use by farmers increases household income, but aging diminishes the boosting effect of Internet usage on household income. By reducing off-farm employment and increasing family care, aging reduces the Internet’s boosting effect on farm household income. Among household income sources, Internet usage significantly contributes to the growth of farm household wage income. Aging dampens the growth of all income sources except transfer income. Aging enhances the boosting effect of Internet usage on the transfer income of farm households; however, it weakens its boosting effect on the wage income of farm households. Therefore, there is an urgent need to promote the construction of rural digital infrastructure, improve farmers’ digital literacy, and improve rural pension infrastructure and services, to escort the digital transformation of agriculture and rural areas and the common prosperity of farmers. Full article

In the context of achieving common prosperity, this article explores the implementation path of the new rural collective economic organization designed to alleviate relative poverty by improving the livelihood strategies of farmers from the perspectives of the development level, operational capability, and governance ability of collective economic organizations. The article provides empirical evidence for how the new rural collective economic organizations can optimize governance and connect with the livelihood strategies of farmers to alleviate relative poverty. The data in this article are from the “China Family Database” of Zhejiang University and the “China Family Finance Survey” of Southwest University of Finance and Economics in 2017. Based on theoretical hypotheses, the HLM model is used to empirically test the mechanism of the new rural collective economic organization in alleviating relative poverty among farmers. The results indicate that, from the perspective of the direct action path, the development level, operational capability, and governance ability of the new rural collective economic organization have a significant direct impact on alleviating relative poverty. In addition, from the perspective of cross-layer interaction paths, the development level of new rural collective economic organizations can significantly strengthen the role of family operational income in suppressing relative poverty. Operational and governance capabilities can significantly enhance the role of household transfer income in inhibiting relative poverty. Therefore, the new rural collective economic organizations should adapt to local conditions, vigorously develop advantageous industries that can provide more non-agricultural employment opportunities to increase the operational income of farmers, introduce highly educated managers, and establish a sound financial management system to ensure the expected benefits for farmers as well as increase their long-term benefits. Full article

As China has experienced rapid economic growth, the study of household wealth distribution has become a pressing issue. This paper uses data from the 2012–2018 China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) to examine the impact of demographic factors and urban–rural differences on household wealth distribution. The study finds that China’s household wealth Gini coefficient has increased significantly, with wealthier households accumulating wealth at a much faster rate than those at the bottom. In addition, negative wealth households, hand-to-mouth households, and indebted households have all shown an upward trend. Despite small marginal effects, demographic factors such as education, average household age, elderly numbers, and household size do not significantly affect the overall trend of the wealth distribution. Both rural and urban households at the top maintain high growth rates, but the average urban household experiences faster wealth growth than its rural counterpart. Asset allocation between rural and urban households also shows significant differences. This analysis underscores the importance of examining wealth distribution to promote equitable resource allocation and economic stability. Policymakers can use the findings of this study to reduce economic disparities and achieve the goal of common prosperity in China. Full article

Common prosperity is an important feature of Chinese-style modernization. The difficulty and focus of promoting the construction of common prosperity in China lies in rural areas and rural households. How to evaluate the common prosperity of rural households is becoming an important research topic. Based on the perspective of meeting the people’s needs for a better life, this study designed 14 items or indicators from the dimensions of affluence, commonality, and sustainability. The common prosperity of rural households is regarded as a potential structure. Based on the survey data of 615 rural households in Zhejiang Province, graded response models were used to estimate the discrimination and difficulty coefficient, and an indicator selection and characteristics analysis were carried out. The research results show that there are 13 items suitable for measuring the common prosperity of rural households, and these indicators have strong distinguishing ability. However, different dimension indicators have different functions. In particular, the affluence dimension, the sharing dimension, and the sustainability dimension are suitable for distinguishing families with a relatively high level of common prosperity, a medium level of common prosperity, and a low level of common prosperity, respectively. Based on this, we propose policy recommendations such as building diversified governance strategies, formulating differentiated governance policies, and supporting the corresponding basic policy reform. Full article

With the rapid development of China’s digital economy, promoting the digital countryside construction has become the strategic focus and priority development direction of rural revitalization and common prosperity. This paper combines the county-level digital countryside index with the data from the China Household Finance Survey to empirically analyze the impact and mechanism of the digital countryside construction on household income. The results show that the digital countryside construction can significantly improve the level of household income. After the endogenous analysis and the robustness test, this core conclusion is still valid. From the perspective of mechanism test, the digital countryside construction can increase household income by promoting household entrepreneurship and nonagricultural employment. Heterogeneity analysis shows that there is no significant difference in the income-increasing effect of the digital countryside construction, whether urban or rural households, or households with different human capital and social relations, which means that the digital countryside development has the characteristics of inclusiveness and sharing. Under the background of unswervingly taking the road of common prosperity for all Chinese people, this paper provides some micro-evidence for how the digital economy can contribute to household income growth, as well as provides a useful reference for the implementation of the digital China strategy. Full article

Agricultural scale operations and industrialization promote the transfer of the rural labor force to the industry sector, and the non-farm employment of farmers plays a great role in increasing their income and reducing poverty. It is of great significance to explore the non-farm employment of farmers for the governance of relative poverty and the achievement of common prosperity. The propensity score matching (PSM) and generalized propensity score matching (GPSM) were used to analyze the impact of rural land transfer on farm households’ non-farm employment. According to the PSM estimation, compared to the farmers’ land not transferred, the rural land transfer significantly increased the proportion of non-farm employment personnel in farm households and the months of per year non-farm employment per person. The total land transfer, paddy land transfer and dry land transfer could significantly increase the proportion of non-farm employment personnel in farm households by 0.074, 0.029 and 0.085 units, respectively, and could significantly increase the months of per year non-farm employment per person by 0.604, 0.394 and 0.617 units, respectively. According to the GPSM estimation, different types of rural land transfer areas have significant positive effects on the proportion of non-farm workers and the months of per year non-farm employment per person, and show an obvious increasing trend of returns to scale, that is, the proportion of non-farm workers and the months of per year non-farm employment per person of farmers are higher than the increase in rural land transfer area. Additionally, the return to scale effect of dry land transfer area is more obvious. In order to raise the income of farm households and narrow the gap between urban and rural areas, the land transfer system can be further improved, urbanization with the county town as an important carrier can be vigorously promoted, the participation of farm households in non-farm employment in the local area can be promoted and the support policy system for non-farm employment of rural labor force can be improved. Full article

The first task for eradicating poverty is accurate poverty identification. Deep poverty identification is conducive to investing resources to help deeply poor populations achieve prosperity, one of the most challenging tasks in poverty eradication. This study constructs a deep poverty identification model utilizing explainable artificial intelligence (XAI) to identify deeply poor households based on the data of 23,307 poor households in rural areas in China. For comparison, a logistic regression-based model and an income-based model are developed as well. We found that our XAI-based model achieves a higher identification performance in terms of the area under the ROC curve than both the logistic regression-based model and the income-based model. For each rural household, the odds of being identified as deeply poor are obtained. Additionally, multidimensional household characteristics associated with deep poverty are specified and ranked for each poor household, while ordinary feature ranking methods can only provide ranking results for poor households as a whole. Taking all poor households into consideration, we found that common important characteristics that can be used to identify deeply poor households include household income, disability, village attributes, lack of funds, labor force, disease, and number of household members, which are validated by mutual information analysis. In conclusion, our XAI-based model can be used to identify deep poverty and specify key household characteristics associated with deep poverty for individual households, facilitating the development of new targeted poverty reduction strategies. Full article