Impact of digital infrastructure on agricultural green transformation: theory and China’s experience
TL;DR
Empirical evidence and policy implications for leveraging digital infrastructure to promote the agricultural green transformation and the driving effect of digital infrastructure is significant in eastern regions, low-altitude counties, and major grain-producing areas, and the impact in other regions is relatively weak.
Abstract
The digital infrastructure is the core support of promoting rural revitalization and agricultural green transformation. However, the impact and implementation pathways through which digital infrastructure affect the agricultural green transformation remain insufficiently explored and require in-depth empirical investigation. This paper utilizes panel data from Chinese counties spanning 2013 to 2023, treating the pilot policy of digital rural construction as a quasi-natural experiment, and employs a difference-in-differences (DID) model to examine the impact and underlying mechanisms of digital infrastructure on agricultural green transformation. The results indicate that digital infrastructure have a significant positive effect on agricultural green transformation, and this conclusion remains robust across multiple robustness checks. Mechanism analysis indicates that digital infrastructure influences the agricultural green transformation through three primary pathways: facilitating agricultural green technological innovation, improving the resource allocation efficiency, and enhancing the agricultural socialized services. Heterogeneity analysis reveals that the driving effect of digital infrastructure is significant in eastern regions, low-altitude counties, and major grain-producing areas, and the impact in other regions is relatively weak. This paper provides empirical evidence and policy implications for leveraging digital infrastructure to promote the agricultural green transformation.