Digital literacy, labor migration and employment, and rural household income disparities

Abstract

Mitigating the income disparity among farmers is essential to promoting common prosperity. Based on the data from the 2020 China Rural Revitalization Comprehensive Survey (CRRS), this paper delves into the impact of digital literacy on the income disparity among farmers. The study shows that digital literacy plays a significant role in reducing income disparity among farmers, which aligns with the “normalization theory” of the digital divide. Through a mediation effect model, the mechanism of digital literacy on the labor force's transition to employment is verified. The results reveal that digital literacy, by enhancing farmers' local part-time decision-making and increasing the time and return of working away from home, effectively mitigates income disparity among farmers. Heterogeneity analysis results demonstrate that compared to the central and eastern regions, digital literacy has a more significant mitigating effect on the income disparity among farmers in the western region; simultaneously, digital literacy has a noticeable negative impact on income disparity among farmers in non-poverty counties or villages engaged in e-commerce activities. Further research indicates that digital training positively adjusts the relationship between digital literacy and income disparity among farmers. This study suggests that while guiding the digital economy to create job demands, it is also crucial to pay attention to the high-quality supply of rural labor, to increase the tilt of digital resources towards vulnerable groups, and to actively adopt measures such as digital training to enhance farmers' digital literacy. This will facilitate the transition of rural labor to employment, fully unleashing the digital dividend to alleviate the issue of income disparity among farmers.