Research on the Impact Mechanism of Digital Rural Construction on the Urban-rural Income Gap in China: From the Dual Perspectives of Digital Divide and Digital Inclusion

From the dual perspectives of digital divide and digital inclusion, this paper employs panel data of 30 provincial-level administrative regions in China from 2011 to 2022 and constructs a two-way fixed effects model to empirically examine the nonlinear impact of digital rural construction on the urban-rural income gap and its underlying mechanisms. The study finds that the impact of digital rural construction on the urban-rural income gap exhibits a significant U-shaped relationship, which is essentially a concentrated manifestation of the progressive imbalance between the evolution of the digital divide and the dimensional advancement of digital inclusion. Non-agricultural employment plays a significant mediating role in this process, serving as the core transmission carrier through which digital inclusion exerts an impact on urban-rural income distribution. Further regional heterogeneity analysis reveals structural differences in the income distribution effects of digital rural construction: the U-shaped gap-narrowing feature is most prominent in industrial transition regions; agriculture-dominant regions remain in the linear dividend period of basic digital inclusion; while the effect is statistically insignificant in highly industrialized regions. Accordingly, this paper proposes to implement a tiered, category-specific differentiated digital rural development strategy, establish a full-dimensional inclusive and shared digital resource allocation mechanism, and improve supporting policies and dynamic monitoring systems, so as to advance the transition from the “digital divide” to “full-dimensional digital inclusion” , and facilitate integrated urban-rural development and common prosperity.