E‐commerce development and urban‐rural income gap: Evidence from Zhejiang Province, China

Abstract

This study aims to reveal how e‐commerce affects the income gap between urban and rural areas in the context of developing world. An empirical examination was carried out by using the panel data of 11 cities in Zhejiang Province, China, from 2011 to 2018. The results show that there is an inverted‐U relationship between e‐commerce development and urban–rural income gap. Zhejiang is still on the left side of the inverted‐U curve, where e‐commerce development increases the urban–rural income gap. The government should create more favorable conditions for the popularization of rural e‐commerce and advance the turning point.

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