Study On The Differences Of Urban And Rural Information Consumption In Jiangsu Province

Information consumption is growing rapidly as a new consumption hot spot,but the differencesbetween urban and rural residents are significant that cause many adverse effects which leading tonew inequalities generated. Taking Jiangsu Province as an example, this article researchesdifferences between urban and rural residents in information consumption.Firstly, it analyzes theoverall information consumption of Jiangsu Province resident based on the perspective ofeconomic growth through cointegration, error correction model, granger causality test. Secondly,a detailed analysis of urban and rural residents from2001to2012changes and differences ininformation consumption is constructed by building information consumption functions based onELES model.Differences analysis has four aspects, including the level of information consumption,consumer information constitutes, information propensity to consume and income elasticity ofdemand for consumer information.Then based on the theory and the existing research results,itdiscusses the factors that effecting the differences in information consumption between urban andrural residents in Jiangsu Province. It analyzes the effect of all segments of income by conductingthe model and makes a qualitative analysis of other possible factors, including differences incultural, the information equipment in possession and the information consumption environment.Finally, considering the differences and factors, the article suggests how to reduce the differences ininformation consumption between urban and rural residents and how to improve the overall level ofinformation consumption.The results show that there are a long-run equilibrium relationship and short-term fluctuationsin the dynamic characteristics between the information consumption and economic growth inJiangsu Province. Economic level is the Granger causes to information consumption growth.Thelevel of information consumption of urban and rural residents in Jiangsu Province are both growingrapidly. Both growth and growth rate, rural residents are slightly higher than urban residents.Thereis a huge gap in information consumption between urban and rural residents, but because of thehuge potential of information consumption of rural residents, the gap has been eased. The differencebetween urban and rural residents in health care expenditures is the biggest. Urban residents arehigher dependence on information consumption than rural residents, but the marginal propensity toconsume information of rural residents is higher than urban residents. Information products andservices are more extravagant for rural residents, and information consumption of rural residents is more sensitive to changes in revenue. The income gap between urban and rural residents is still thebiggest cause of information consumption differences between them. The difference between urbanand rural residents in information consumption can be explained by operating income and propertyincome. Operating income difference presents the most obvious negative effect.The gap of propertyincome present weak positive effect. Wage income and transfer income differences both presentpositively affected. The expanding of computer ownership gap causes further expanding ofinformation consumption gap between urban and rural residents.With the gap between urban andrural residents in cultural qualities, especially the proportion of college education population and thegap between the information environment such as fiscal expenditures expanding, difference ininformation consumption is also expanding.