Connecting the Countryside via E-Commerce: Evidence from China

Victor Couture, Benjamin Faber, Yizhen Gu and Lizhi Liu

American Economic Review: Insights, 2021, vol. 3, issue 1, 35-50

Abstract: This paper estimates the impact of the first nationwide e-commerce expansion program on rural households. To do so, we combine a randomized control trial with new survey and administrative microdata. In contrast to existing case studies, we find little evidence for income gains to rural producers and workers. Instead, the gains are driven by a reduction in cost of living for a minority of rural households that tend to be younger, richer, and in more remote markets. These effects are mainly due to overcoming logistical barriers to e-commerce rather than additional investments to adapt e-commerce to the rural population.

JEL-codes: I31 L81 O12 O18 P25 P36 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (34)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/aeri.20190382 (application/pdf)
https://doi.org/10.3886/E117506V2 (text/html)
https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/aeri.20190382.appx (application/pdf)
https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/aeri.20190382.ds (application/zip)

Related works:
Working Paper: Connecting the Countryside via E-Commerce: Evidence from China (2018)
Working Paper: Connecting the Countryside via E-Commerce: Evidence from China (2018)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aea:aerins:v:3:y:2021:i:1:p:35-50

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.aeaweb.org/journals/subscriptions

DOI: 10.1257/aeri.20190382

Access Statistics for this article

American Economic Review: Insights is currently edited by Amy Finkelstein

More articles in American Economic Review: Insights from American Economic Association Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Michael P. Albert ().