| Internet development is not only an important consumption condition,but also a major revolution of consumption mode.Consumption is the final stage of social reproduction and the key driving force and important pillar of sustainable economic development.At the same time,consumption is an important indicator reflecting the living standard of residents and a direct reflection of a better life.At present,new driving force,new scenes and new formats of consumption are constantly emerging.From the development of e-commerce,the popularization of mobile payment,to the sharing of remote resources,the Internet is expanding and meeting people's needs at an unprecedented speed.How to give full play to the consumption effect of the Internet,boost the quality and capacity of consumption,and promote the formation of digital life,this is of great significance for achieving higher quality and more efficient development and meeting people's longing for a better life.Based on combing the relevant literature at home and abroad,grasping the development of the Internet and the changes of residents' consumption in China,this paper studies the influence and mechanism of Internet development on residents' consumption structure from macro and micro perspectives.Firstly,this paper establishes the theoretical analysis framework of Internet development influencing the consumption structure of residents through consumer behavior.And,we summarize the path of Internet affecting consumption structure,which are price effect,market effect,income effect and credit constraint.Then,the mathematical model is used to deduce the influence mechanism.Secondly,we construct a measurement system of China's Internet development level.And,this measurement system covers the three dimensions,Internet basic resources,Internet popularization and Internet development environment.According to the Internet development level measurement system,this paper selects the provincial panel data from 2003 to 2018 to measure and compare the Internet development level of China's provinces(cities and autonomous regions).Thirdly,in this paper,dynamic panel model and QUAIDS model with Internet factors are established.Using the measurement methods of sys-GMM and QUAIDS model,from the provincial macro perspective,this paper empirically analyzes the impact of Internet development on residents' consumption level and the proportion of various consumption expenditures.And,from the micro consumer behavior level,based on China's household tracking survey data(CFPS),this paper analyzes the impact ofInternet use on household consumption structure and its mechanism,and further analyzes the heterogeneity of different channels.We use OLS,instrumental variable regression,PSM,panel quantile regression and so on.The main conclusions are as follows:First,Internet basic resources are developing rapidly.Internet users and penetration continue to increase in China.The scale of online shopping users is growing rapidly,and the online consumer market is expanding rapidly.The way of consumption is increasingly diversified.The consumption structure of Chinese residents has been constantly optimized and the quality of consumption has been upgraded.The proportion of necessary living expenses such as food and clothing is declining.In addtion,the gap between urban and rural areas in the fields of consumption,such as transportation and communication,education,culture and entertainment,and health care,has been narrowing.Especially in the fields of communication and health care,the consumption proportion of rural residents has exceeded that of urban residents.Second,the level of Internet development has been improved in all regions of China,but the digital divide is still large.From 2003 to 2018,at the national level,the overall level of the Internet development shows a steady increase year by year,with an average annual growth rate of 7.59%.The index of Internet basic resources,Internet popularization and Internet development environment has been improved.Among them,the Internet popularization has the fastest growth rate,with an average annual growth rate of 13.12%,ranking first among the three dimensions,and has the largest pulling effect on Internet development level.At the regional level,the Internet development level in the eastern region is higher than the national average,while that in the central and western regions is lower than the national average.Thus regional differences expand.The Internet development level among provinces is quite different,and the trend of polarization is obvious.Third,the development of Internet has a significant impact on residents' consumption level,but there are obvious regional differences.And,income is still the key factor affecting the consumption level of residents.Generally speaking,the Internet has a positive role in promoting the consumption level of residents.In other words,the improvement of Internet development level helps to promote the increase of local consumption level.Specifically,in areas with high degree of Internet,Internet development has a significant role in promoting consumption level.For every unitincrease in Internet development level index,the per capita consumption level of residents will increase by 15.43%.However,in areas with low Internet development level,the positive effect of Internet on consumption level is not significant.Moreover,the relationship between per capita disposable income and consumption level is positive.This shows that under the background of Internet economy,the theory of consumption function still holds.Urbanization and population aging significantly reduce savings and increase consumption.Unemployment rate has a restraining effect on consumption level.Fourth,Internet helps to upgrade the consumption structure of residents.In addition to residential expenditure,the Internet has a significant impact on the proportion of consumption types such as food,clothing,household goods and supplies.Among them,the development of the Internet will significantly increase the proportion of food,daily necessities and services,transportation,communication,culture,education and entertainment in the total expenditure,while the impact on clothing and health care is negative.Fifth,from the family level,compared with the families who do not use the Internet,the use of the Internet can promote the increase the proportion of enjoyment consumption by 6.44 percentage points.In terms of price effect,the positive role of Internet on consumption structure of residents has a greater impact on households with more consumption expenditure.In the aspect of market effect,compared with no online shopping behavior,the online shopping behavior has a positive promoting effect on the consumption structure of residents.However,the market effect of Internet has heterogeneity among different groups.With the improvement of consumption level,the market effect shows a trend of increasing first and then decreasing.By region and age groups,the market effect of the Internet has a stronger role in the consumption upgrading of rural areas and young people.In terms of income effect,Internet use has a significant positive impact on the income level of employees.Internet has a significant income return,that is,the income effect of the Internet is significant.Compared with the workers who do not use the Internet,Internet use can bring a 27.3% income premium.Through heterogeneity analysis,we found that,in terms of education level,the income effect of the Internet reflects a certain technical bias.The income effect has a greater role in high school graduates.In addition,the income return of Internet use has little difference between genders.In different income classes,compared with low-income and high-income classes,theincome premium effect of Internet is the most obvious in the middle class.The wide application of Internet provides the possibility to narrow the income gap between the middle and high class.Based on the above conclusions,the policy implications of this paper are as follows: Vigorously develop a new generation of information networks and improve the development level of the Internet;Build inclusive Internet and promote the balanced development among regions;Actively expand e-commerce and promote the development of online shopping market;Improve the income level of residents and enhance the purchasing power of consumers;Strengthen consumer education and improve the consumption power;Optimize the network environment and improve digital security. |
PDF Full Text Request