Can Digital Village Construction Help Upgrade Rural Household Consumption? An Empirical Examination Based on China's Rural Household Survey Data

Digital village construction opens a new vista for fulfilling consumption capabilities and optimizing consumption patterns in rural areas. For this research, we used the microdata on rural households from the 2019 China Household Finance Survey(CHFS) to conduct an empirical examination of the impact of digital village construction on the upgrading of rural household consumption and its possible influence mechanisms in the endogenous switching regression(ESR) model. Our research findings can be summarized in three points. First, digital village construction has significantly contributed positive contributions to the improvements and upgrading of rural household consumption. Second, digital village construction can help upgrade rural household consumption by increasing their participation in online shopping and expanding online shopping channels. Third, digital village construction means different things to rural households at different levels of risk exposure, with its facilitation to consumption upgrades in proportion to income risks facing rural households. Our research findings, which came from an extensive, in-depth exploration of the factors influencing rural household consumption, are of practical significance and policy value to the stimulating and fulfilling of consumption potentials among rural households.