Online markets, offline happiness: E-commerce development and subjective well-being in rural China

Binhui Wei, Chunkai Zhao and Mingzhong Luo

China Economic Review, 2024, vol. 87, issue C

Abstract: Employing a quasi-natural experiment of the National Rural E-commerce Comprehensive Demonstration County (NRECDC) policy, our research aimed to explore the causal effect of e-commerce development and residents' subjective well-being (SWB) in rural China. By adopting the data of China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) from 2014 to 2020 and using a staggered difference-in-differences (DID) method, we found that rural e-commerce development resulted in an average increase of 2.40% in happiness scores. This positive effect can be explained by absolute material welfare enhancement, relative disparity reduction, and social capital accumulation. Further evidence suggests that e-commerce users are more likely to benefit from the NRECDC policy and that the synergistic effect of digital finance and e-commerce contributes to rural residents' SWB. However, we revealed that the potential digital divide effect in e-commerce development, due to technological barriers and self-digital exclusion, has not enhanced the SWB of some relatively disadvantaged groups in rural China. Our findings enrich the research field of digital well-being and shed light on the potential digital divide effects of digital tools such as e-commerce in rural China.

Keywords: E-commerce development; Subjective well-being; National Rural E-commerce Comprehensive Demonstration County; Digital divide; Rural China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I31 O38 R28 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:chieco:v:87:y:2024:i:c:s1043951x24001366

DOI: 10.1016/j.chieco.2024.102247

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