Digital Infrastructure Construction and Improvement of Non-Farm Employment Quality of Rural Labor Force—From the Perspective of Informal Employment

Wenxin Ding, Qiang Wu and Xuanguo Xu ()
Additional contact information
Wenxin Ding: School of Economics and Management, Shandong Agricultural University, Taian 271018, China
Qiang Wu: School of Economics and Management, Shandong Agricultural University, Taian 271018, China
Xuanguo Xu: School of Public Administration, Shandong Agricultural University, Taian 271018, China

Sustainability, 2024, vol. 16, issue 13, 1-24

Abstract: The pivotal role of digital infrastructure as hardware support for fostering economic efficiency in the digital economy is widely acknowledged. However, it begs the question, can the development of digital infrastructure also advance social equity, particularly concerning horizontal equity, as exemplified by the quality of non-farm employment among rural laborers, which serves as a barometer for the fairness and inclusivity of the social opportunity landscape? This article delves into the ramifications of digital infrastructure development on the quality of non-farm employment for rural laborers. Initially, it conducts a theoretical exploration of the impact and mechanisms of digital infrastructure construction on non-farm employment quality within rural labor sectors, drawing upon the Todaro model framework and existing scholarly discourse. Subsequently, by integrating data on digital infrastructure construction at the prefecture-level city level with four periods of the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) data spanning 2014 to 2020, employing various endogenous treatment methods including two-way fixed effects, sensitivity analysis, and instrumental variable techniques, it empirically tests and analyzes the internal mechanisms. The findings reveal that digital infrastructure construction plays a beneficial role in enhancing the quality of non-farm employment for rural laborers, encompassing both subjective perceptions and objective circumstances of non-farm work. Notably, it is observed that digital infrastructure construction significantly fosters improvements in the quality of informal employment among rural laborers, with notable disparities across gender and skill levels. This discovery exerts a positive influence on advancing the sustainable development of the labor market. Specifically, female rural laborers necessitate higher skill proficiency and educational attainment to attain commensurate benefits as their male counterparts. Moreover, caution is warranted regarding the potential for digital infrastructure construction to exacerbate existing power differentials and widen socioeconomic disparities through the perpetuation of the digital divide.

Keywords: digital infrastructure construction; non-farm employment; rural labor force (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/13/5345/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/13/5345/ (text/html)

Related works:
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:gam:jsusta:v:16:y:2024:i:13:p:5345-:d:1420671

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().