Research On The Impact Of Digital Literacy On Rural Residents’ Income

Promoting rural revitalization in an all-round way,ensuring steady increase in agricultural output,steady increase in farmers’ incomes,and stability and tranquility in rural areas are important aspects of our work on agriculture,rural areas and farmers.Among them,to promote the steady increase of farmers’ income is the key to promote rural farmers to achieve common prosperity.However,how to better promote the steady growth of farmers’ income under the national and agricultural conditions in the new era is an important subject to be solved urgently under the background of the current century of changes and century of epidemic.At present,the accelerated development of digital technology has had a profound impact on the economic and social structure and form in rural areas,the mode of farmers’ economic behavior and its results.In other words,Internet technology plays an important role in realizing common prosperity of rural farmers.However,the increasing depth and breadth of the use of digital technology also put forward new and higher requirements for the level of digital literacy of farmers.The level of digital literacy is having a complex and profound impact on rural residents’ income.At the same time,one of the necessary meanings of common prosperity of rural farmers is to increase farmers’ income and narrow the income gap.However,the gap reflected in the digital literacy of farmers is affecting the change of the income gap of farmers.Increasing the income of farmers and narrowing the income gap is a hot issue in academic research,but there is still room for improvement in the research perspective,content and methods of the existing research.Based on this,this paper attempts to innovate from the research perspective,research content and research methods to study the impact of digital literacy on rural residents’ income.The solutions proposed in this study are as follows: Firstly,through extensive literature review,the current academic definition of farmers’ digital literacy level and the gap between farmers’ digital literacy,the influence effect of farmers’ digital literacy,and the digital influencing factors of farmers’ income are understood.On the basis of understanding related concepts and existing research,we establish our theoretical foundation.That is,transaction cost theory,information asymmetry theory,human capital theory,social capital theory,risk preference theory and farmers risk avoidance theory.Then,using the data from the field household survey conducted by the research group in rural areas of southern Jiangsu in 2020,the index system for measuring farmers’ digital literacy level was constructed by combining qualitative and quantitative methods,and the level measurement was carried out by factor analysis method,so as to explore the current situation of rural residents’ digital literacy level and the differences among groups.Then,an econometric model is established to study the impact of digital literacy level on rural residents’ income and its mechanism,and heterogeneity analysis is carried out from the education level and age characteristics,and the impact of digital literacy level on different income structures and income diversification is further analyzed.Then,the research data of the research group were also used to measure the digital literacy gap index and the income gap of farmers from the perspective of village group differences,and the quantitative model was established to study the impact of the digital literacy gap on the income gap of farmers and its mechanism.Meanwhile,the influence of different income gap structures was analyzed.Finally,according to the empirical results,the corresponding conclusions are summarized and policy suggestions are given.This paper draws the following conclusions:(1)The digital literacy level of farmers is generally low,and low education level,middle-aged and elderly and female farmers are mostly disadvantaged.(2)The annual total income of rural residents is evenly distributed,but there is still a certain income gap,and wage income and operational income account for a large proportion in the income structure,farmers are more likely to produce a large gap in operational income and property income.(3)The level of digital literacy has a significant promoting effect on farmers’ income,and has a more positive effect on the low education level and young farmers.At the same time,through the mechanism analysis,it is found that the level of digital literacy is beneficial to expand farmers’ virtual social network and improve farmers’ participation in strong network employment activities,so as to increase farmers’ income.(4)Based on the analysis of income structure,it is found that the digital literacy level has a significant promotion effect on wage income and operational income,which occupy a large proportion of income structure.However,the promotion effect on property income and transfer income,which occupy a small proportion,is not so obvious.When income diversity is further considered,it is found that the level of digital literacy has a significant positive impact on the diversification of farmers’ income.(5)The digital literacy gap will significantly expand the income gap of farmers,and this blocking effect is obvious in all kinds of income gaps.Through the mechanism analysis,it is found that the digital literacy gap can inhibit the effect of information channel and weaken employment opportunities,thus widening the income gap of farmers.Based on the above conclusions,this study puts forward the following policy suggestions:(1)improve the construction of rural information infrastructure and enhance farmers’ digital application ability;(2)Establish a digital literacy training service system to narrow the gap between farmers’ digital literacy;(3)Give full play to the internal driving force of digital literacy and broaden multiple channels for farmers to increase income and get rich.