To explore the supporting role of digital commerce in rural development, an rural economic panel data of 284 prefecture-level cities in China from 2000 to 2022. Causal inference and difference-in-difference methods were used to investigate the impact and mechanism of the digital commerce agricultural revitalization policy represented by “Taobao” village on rural revitalization. The results show that: 1)The expansion of the number and scale of “Taobao” villages has a significant positive effect on the level of rural revitalization. The regional resource endowment structure has a heterogeneous impact on the sub-dimensions of rural revitalization. The areas with high government intervention, agricultural efficiency, green coverage, population density and digital finance level of digital business and agriculture policy have significant positive effect on all dimensions of rural revitalization. 2)Compared with “non-Taobao” villageareas, “Taobao” village identification has a significant positive effect on local rural revitalization and its sub-dimensions, especially on the improvement of living affluence level, and the above results are still reliable after a series of robustness tests. 3)“Taobao” village improves rural revitalization, industrial prosperity and affluent living through employment transfer effect, improves ecological livability by improving the local natural environment, and improves rural civilization and effective governance by improving medical care. This study provides important empirical evidence and policy implications for the rejuvenation of agriculture through digital commerce.
式中:Rural‑development it 为被解释变量,包括乡村振兴、产业兴旺、生态宜居、乡风文明、治理有效和生活富裕;Taobao it 为核心解释变量“淘宝村”,表示i城市在t年的“淘宝村”数量,β1衡量“淘宝村”对乡村振兴的影响效果,若“淘宝村”能够提高乡村振兴水平,则回归系数β应显著,反之结果不显著;Control it 为t年影响城市i被解释变量的一系列控制变量;δt 为控制随时间变化且不可观测的地区特征因素;μi 为控制随个体变化且不可观测的地区特征因素;εit 为影响被解释变量的随机扰动项;i取值1~284,t取值2000—2022。考虑到全部样本在时间或个体维度存在固定且不可观测的趋势性,本研究采用双向固定效应模型来解决观测值偏误问题。
式中:α为常数项,核心解释变量Didtb it 为反应城市i在t年是否实施了数商兴农试点的虚拟变量,城市i在t年若实施了该政策,则取值为1,反之则为0;β2为双重差分估计量,衡量数商兴农对乡村振兴的相对影响效果,若数商兴农政策能够提高乡村振兴水平,则回归系数β应显著,反之结果不显著;其余变量定义与式(1)相同。
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