IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecanpo/v82y2024icp976-998.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Does rural e-commerce drive up incomes for rural residents? Evidence from Taobao villages in China

Author

Listed:
  • Zhang, Ning
  • Yang, Wantong
  • Ke, Haiqian

Abstract

The prosperity of rural e-commerce is crucial for rural economic development and rural residents’ well-being, it also offers a fresh perspective towards addressing the “Three Rural Issues” in China. Considering Taobao villages (rural e-commerce) as a quasi-natural experiment, this study explores the impact of Taobao villages on rural residents’ per capita disposable income by applying a staggered difference-in-difference (DID) method within county data from 2010 to 2020. It also reveals the underlying mechanisms behind them along with enterprise microdata. The empirical findings show that, on average, Taobao villages contribute to an annual increase of RMB 1820 in rural residents’ income, and this effect is more prominent in counties with a dominant tertiary sector, larger scale, and non-poor counties. Furthermore, three mechanisms of Taobao village income-raising effect exist: labor mobility across sectors, new business registration, and cost reduction in e-commerce firms. These findings provide compelling evidence for policymakers to promote rural e-commerce as a means to bolster rural residents’ income and foster rural economic growth, it is also of great practical significance for China in narrowing the urban–rural income gap.

Suggested Citation

  • Zhang, Ning & Yang, Wantong & Ke, Haiqian, 2024. "Does rural e-commerce drive up incomes for rural residents? Evidence from Taobao villages in China," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 976-998.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecanpo:v:82:y:2024:i:c:p:976-998
    DOI: 10.1016/j.eap.2024.04.023
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0313592624001024
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.eap.2024.04.023?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Victor Couture & Benjamin Faber & Yizhen Gu & Lizhi Liu, 2021. "Connecting the Countryside via E-Commerce: Evidence from China," American Economic Review: Insights, American Economic Association, vol. 3(1), pages 35-50, March.
    2. Thorsten Beck & Ross Levine & Alexey Levkov, 2010. "Big Bad Banks? The Winners and Losers from Bank Deregulation in the United States," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 65(5), pages 1637-1667, October.
    3. Goodman-Bacon, Andrew, 2021. "Difference-in-differences with variation in treatment timing," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 225(2), pages 254-277.
    4. Yang, Bo & Ma, Fang & Deng, Weihua & Pi, Yang, 2022. "Digital inclusive finance and rural household subsistence consumption in China," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 627-642.
    5. Chen, Chen & Gan, Christopher & Li, Junpeng & Lu, Yao & Rahut, Dil, 2023. "Linking farmers to markets: Does cooperative membership facilitate e-commerce adoption and income growth in rural China?," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 1155-1170.
    6. Yang Liu & Mi Zhou, 2023. "Can rural e-commerce narrow the urban–rural income gap? Evidence from coverage of Taobao villages in China," China Agricultural Economic Review, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 15(3), pages 580-603, July.
    7. Tang, Jianjun & Gong, Jiaowei & Ma, Wanglin & Rahut, Dil Bahadur, 2022. "Narrowing urban–rural income gap in China: The role of the targeted poverty alleviation program," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 74-90.
    8. Baker, Andrew C. & Larcker, David F. & Wang, Charles C.Y., 2022. "How much should we trust staggered difference-in-differences estimates?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 144(2), pages 370-395.
    9. Zheng, Hongyun & Ma, Wanglin, 2023. "Impact of agricultural commercialization on dietary diversity and vulnerability to poverty: Insights from Chinese rural households," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 558-569.
    10. Qi, Jiaqi & Zheng, Xiaoyong & Guo, Hongdong, 2019. "The formation of Taobao villages in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 106-127.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Lv, Jiamin & Li, Shi & Zhu, Mengying & Huang, Wenli, 2024. "Can the digital economy development limit the size of the informal economy? A nonlinear analysis based on China's provincial panel data," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 896-921.
    2. Hong, Xianna & Chen, Qiuhua & Man, Danlu & Shi, Chenyong & Wang, Nan, 2024. "The impact of digitalization on the rich and the poor: Digital divide or digital inclusion?," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    3. Xinglong Yang & Yunuo Wang & Xing Jin, 2024. "An Exploration of the Relationship Between Digital Village Construction and Agroecological Efficiency in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(22), pages 1-21, November.
    4. Jing Hou & Xin Li & Feiyu Chen & Bo Hou, 2024. "The Effect of Digital Economy on Rural Environmental Governance: Evidence from China," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 14(11), pages 1-32, November.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Duan, Wenqi & Jiang, Mingming & Qi, Jianhong, 2024. "Poverty or pollution: The environmental cost of E-commerce for poverty reduction in China," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 127(C).
    2. Wei, Binhui & Zhao, Chunkai & Luo, Mingzhong, 2024. "Online markets, offline happiness: E-commerce development and subjective well-being in rural China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    3. Ma, Rui & Guo, Fei & Li, Dongdong, 2024. "Can public data availability affect stock price crash risk? Evidence from China," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    4. Gao, Jing & Zeng, Yiwu & Liu, Min, 2024. "Policy interventions and market innovation in rural China: Empirical evidence from Taobao villages," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 1411-1429.
    5. Nie, Song, 2024. "Does intellectual property rights protection matter for low-carbon transition? The role of institutional incentives," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 140(C).
    6. Xu, Yang & Huang, Wei & Zhang, Cherry Yi, 2024. "Navigating international competition with ESG: Insights from the US-China trade war," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 70(PB).
    7. Wang, Xue & Liu, Qingyuan, 2024. "Information disclosure and ESG rating disagreement: Evidence from green bond issuance in China," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    8. Ichev, Riste & Valentinčič, Aljoša, 2025. "The effect of impact investing on performance of private firms," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 73(PA).
    9. Li, Qianqian & Zhao, Zhengtang & Chen, Tingting, 2024. "The effect of public pension insurance integration on income disparities between urban-rural households: Evidence from a quasi-experiment in China," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    10. Rik Chakraborti & Gavin Roberts, 2023. "How price-gouging regulation undermined COVID-19 mitigation: county-level evidence of unintended consequences," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 196(1), pages 51-83, July.
    11. Brown, David P. & Muehlenbachs, Lucija, 2023. "The Value of Electricity Reliability: Evidence from Battery Adoption," Working Papers 2023-5, University of Alberta, Department of Economics, revised 26 Jul 2024.
    12. Jingyi Tian & Jun Nagayasu, 2023. "Financial Systemic Risk behind Artificial Intelligence:Evidence from China," TUPD Discussion Papers 44, Graduate School of Economics and Management, Tohoku University.
    13. Lili Li & Yiwu Zeng & Zi Ye & Hongdong Guo, 2021. "E‐commerce development and urban‐rural income gap: Evidence from Zhejiang Province, China," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 100(2), pages 475-494, April.
    14. Fang, Hongxing & Chen, Linghong & Xiong, Jiacai & Zhu, Yushu, 2024. "Social Trust and Entrepreneurship: Insights from China's Social Credit System," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 62(PA).
    15. Fengrong Liu & Jiayu Chen & Chaozhu Li & Fenghui Xu, 2023. "Cost Sharing and Cost Shifting Mechanisms under a per Diem Payment System in a County of China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(3), pages 1-12, January.
    16. Chy, Mahfuz & Kyung, Hoyoun, 2023. "The effect of bond market transparency on bank loan contracting," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 75(2).
    17. Eryu Zhang & Xiaoyu He & Peng Xiao, 2022. "Does Smart City Construction Decrease Urban Carbon Emission Intensity? Evidence from a Difference-in-Difference Estimation in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(23), pages 1-16, December.
    18. Mikhail Mamonov & Anna Pestova & Steven Ongena, 2023. "“Crime and Punishment”? How Banks Anticipate and Propagate Global Financial Sanctions," CERGE-EI Working Papers wp753, The Center for Economic Research and Graduate Education - Economics Institute, Prague.
    19. Zhou, Bihua & Huang, Yun & Zhao, Yihang, 2024. "Research on the incentive effect of the policy combination of carbon-reduction pilot cities," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 456-475.
    20. Giuseppe Rose & Francesco Mazzulla, 2023. "Relaxing Occupational Licensing In Italy: A Staggered Difference In Differences Analysis Using Balance-Sheet Data Of Italian Pharmacies," Working Papers 202302, Università della Calabria, Dipartimento di Economia, Statistica e Finanza "Giovanni Anania" - DESF.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ecanpo:v:82:y:2024:i:c:p:976-998. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/economic-analysis-and-policy .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.