Can digital literacy improve individuals' incomes and narrow the income gap?

Abstract

This paper constructs an evaluation index system of digital literacy based on the data from China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) in 2018 from five dimensions: information and learning, vocational abilities, digital sociability, digital content creation, and digital security, and empirically tests the impact of digital literacy on individuals' income level and income gap. Firstly, The results show that digital literacy can significantly improve the overall individual's income level and narrow the internal individual income gap. Digital literacy is conducive to narrowing the income gap between the sexes but has an insignificant impact on the intergenerational and urban-rural income gap. In addition, digital literacy in paternal and urban samples is more conducive to narrowing the internal income gap among women, offspring, and rural samples than males. The corresponding use of digital skills and productive digital literacy have a greater impact on narrowing residents' internal income gap than the penetration of digital awareness and living digital literacy.