Rural Residential Consumption Research Articles

Research on the Impact of Digital Financial Inclusion on the Consumption of Rural Residents

Research on the Impact of Digital Financial Inclusion on the Consumption of Rural Residents

The Impact of Digital Financial Inclusion on Urban and Rural Citizens' Consumption in Zhejiang Province

In order to create a harmonized society, it is important to reduce the urban-rural consumption disparity. Digital financial inclusion plays a major role in weakening the rural-urban consumption gaps and promoting common prosperity. Zhejiang Province is located in southeastern China, with a large population and developed economy. For the past few years, moreover, its rapid growth in the field of digital economy has enabled it to lay a deep foundation for the growth of digital financial inclusion. This paper explores the influence of the current growth of digital inclusive finance on the consumption of urban and rural residents in Zhejiang Province by selecting each city's panel data at the prefecture level in Zhejiang Province during the period of 2011-2021.Results displayed: firstly, as digital financial inclusion grows in Zhejiang, both rural and urban consumers will benefit from it;Secondly, the growth of digital financial inclusion will have a more remarkable effect on the consumption of rural residents than that of urban residents, i.e., urban-rural consumption disparities in Zhejiang Province can be narrowed by digital financial inclusion.

Exploring the Impact of Digital Economic Development on Green Energy Consumption of Rural Residents Using Principal Component Analysis Methods

Abstract The digital economy has become an important driving force for green energy consumption, and its impact has covered rural areas. This paper establishes a comprehensive evaluation model of green energy consumption based on group principal component analysis, and at the same time establishes evaluation indicators of the green energy consumption level of rural residents to explore the impact of the development of the digital economy on green energy consumption. Based on the comprehensive evaluation model and evaluation indexes, the green energy consumption level of rural residents in the “2+26” cities and the three major economic zones is analyzed. The rural areas with higher green energy consumption levels by 2022 include Tangshan, Jining, and Kaifeng, with 0.794, 0.788, and 0.852, respectively. The willingness of rural residents in the three major economic zones to consume green energy is in line with the trend of the degree of development of the digital economy, in which the willingness to consume green energy is highest among rural residents under the age of 20 in the eastern region, with an average of 4.81. At the same time, the development of the digital economy has a direct effect on the level of consumption of green energy. The regression coefficient of the direct effect on the level of green energy consumption is 0.289. Overall, the development of the digital economy has a greater promotion effect on the level and willingness of rural residents to consume green energy.

Effects of direct grain subsidies on food consumption of rural residents in China

AbstractThe agricultural subsidy is an important policy instrument that aims to maintain food security and promote agricultural development in several countries. China introduced its first nationwide agricultural subsidy (i.e., the direct grain subsidy) for farmers in 2004. This study examines the impacts of direct grain subsidies on rural residents' food consumption patterns and nutritional intake on an individual basis. Based on a nationally representative sample of rural households from the National Rural Fixed Observation Points Survey data collected by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of China between 2003 and 2015, high‐dimensional fixed‐effects estimates show that the direct grain subsidy has boosted rural residents' grain consumption but reduced aquatic products, eggs, and dairy consumption in China. Specifically, an increase of 100 Chinese Yuan in per capita subsidies is associated with a rise of 14.94 g in daily grain consumption but a decrease of 0.57, 0.46, and 0.90 g in aquatic products, eggs, and dairy consumption, respectively. Furthermore, direct grain subsidies intensified rural residents' dietary imbalance and declined their dietary diversity. Observed dietary imbalance can be primarily attributed to the subsidy encouraging households' self‐sufficient grain consumption, leading to excessive cereal consumption and relatively lower consumption of meat, eggs, and milk. Our findings suggest that direct grain subsidies emphasizing the production of staple grains may inadvertently skew farmers' food consumption and nutritional intake, which may require consideration when evaluating the overall costs and benefits of agricultural subsidy policies. [EconLit Citations: D12, H20, I12, Q18].

Promoting or Inhibiting? Digital Inclusive Finance and Cultural Consumption of Rural Residents

Improving the cultural consumption level of rural residents is of great practical significance to help revitalize rural culture and achieve common prosperity. Based on this, this study empirically examines the role and impact mechanism of digital inclusive finance on enhancing the cultural consumption of rural residents using panel data of 30 provinces across China from 2011 to 2020. The results show that: (1) Digital inclusive finance can significantly improve the cultural consumption level of rural residents. After a robustness test and endogenous analysis, this conclusion is still stable. (2) Digital inclusive finance significantly improves the cultural consumption level of rural residents through three paths: raising the income level of farmers, promoting the level of urbanization, and improving the level of financial development. (3) Heterogeneity analysis shows that the breadth of digital inclusive financial coverage can significantly improve the cultural consumption level of rural residents, but the depth of digital inclusive financial use and the degree of digitization do not show an enhancing effect; the development of digital inclusive finance in the eastern area has a significant role in promoting the cultural consumption level of rural residents, but the role is not significant in the central and western areas.

A General Equilibrium Analysis of Achieving the Goal of Stable Growth by China’s Market Expectations in the Context of the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic triggered a weakening of expectations of market players and local governments. It is necessary to explore some effective paths to stabilize China’s market expectations. This paper draws on computable general equilibrium (CGE) model elasticity indicators and marginal utility indicators to simulate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on market agents and the impact of shocks brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic on various industry sectors. Our results first show that the Keynesian closure is still valid, with the impact values of the COVID-19 pandemic on GDP, urban consumption, rural consumption, investment, imports, and exports being 2.35%, 7.96%, 9.79%, 4.10%, −3.13%, and 6.15%, respectively, with the COVID-19 pandemic shock having a particularly strong impact on rural consumption. Second, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on different industries is comprehensive and non-equilibrium. In consumption, urban and rural residents have the largest changes in consumption demand in the tertiary and primary industries, and the overall change in consumption of rural residents is larger than that of urban residents. In investment, the tertiary industry investment changes most significantly, while the primary industry has a gentle change. The impact of weaker import and export expectations on industry imports and exports is concentrated in the secondary and primary industries. Third, the weakening expectation induces a decline in the multiplier effect, making it difficult for economic growth to return to pre-pandemic levels, which needs to be accompanied by fiscal policies such as reducing taxes, lowering fees, and raising fiscal spending to achieve growth targets. In addition, while fiscal policy significantly boosts import and export trade, it has a significantly greater impact on exports than imports.

Analysis on the Path of Digital Villages Affecting Rural Residents' Consumption Upgrade: Based on the Investigation and Research of 164 Administrative Villages in the Pilot Area of Digital Villages in Zhejiang Province.

The weak consumption of rural residents has become an important factor restricting the healthy development of the Chinese economy. With the continuous development of digital construction in rural areas, its role in the upgrading of rural residents' consumption is becoming more and more important. Based on the mechanism of 164 administrative villages in the pilot area of Zhejiang Province, and using staggered cluster analysis, MLR analysis, mediation effect model, etc., this paper discusses the impact and transmission mechanism of digital villages on rural residents' consumption upgrade. The results show that farmers' wage income, property income, and total income all play a significant positive mediating role in the process of promoting consumption upgrading in digital villages; information literacy is a latent variable in the process of promoting consumption upgrading in digital villages. It also played a significant positive mediating role. The research provides the micromechanism of the digital village affecting the consumption upgrade of rural residents and puts forward to promote the process of infrastructure construction, improve the construction of e-commerce system, pay attention to the differences among residents and other suggestions.

Influencing factors and paths of direct carbon emissions from the energy consumption of rural residents in central China determined using a questionnaire survey

Rural residents have unique lifestyle characteristics, energy consumption methods, energy-saving behaviors, and awareness. And the direct carbon emission from rural residents is based on the combined effect of multiple factors. In order to address the complexity of factors affecting the direct carbon emissions from rural household, this study used a structural equation model to examine the effect of multi-factor variables on direct carbon emissions from rural households in central China. Data were collected using questionnaires and surveys in six cities in central China to reflect the daily reality of rural residents. The results show that quality of life and awareness of energy conservation can affect the direct carbon emissions of rural residents. Family characteristics and awareness of energy conservation affected carbon emissions indirectly by affecting the daily behaviors and quality of life of the residents; consumption characteristics, energy-saving behaviors, and energy conservation policies are not the main factors contributing to the direct carbon emissions of the residents. Based on the results, future studies can focus on energy conservation education, improvement of the living habits, coal energy use efficiency, and energy consumption structure of residences.

Income Uncertainty and Consumer Demand among Rural Residents Analysis Based on Optimisation of Household Consumption Utility.

As China enters a new era, the role of consumption as a driving force for the economy has become increasingly prominent. The consumption of rural residents is not only a matter of high-quality economic development but also an important part of realizing people's aspirations for a better life. This study contributes to the literature by establishing an econometric model based on the construction of a theoretical model for optimizing the utility of household consumption, using panel data from China's 31 provinces, eliminating endogenesis by using instrumental variables, taking 2SLS and dynamic GMM. The results show that the relationship between income uncertainty and rural residents' consumption varies in the same direction, stimulating consumption when real income exceeds psychological income and reducing consumption when real income does not reach psychological income. The quantile model shows that income uncertainty has a greater impact on the middle-high-consumption groups and a smaller impact on the lower-income groups.

Carbon emissions’ spatial-temporal heterogeneity and identification from rural energy consumption in China

Carbon emissions from industry and cities have been the focus of global carbon emissions control, but the need to reduce carbon emissions from large agricultural countries cannot be ignored. This study measured rural carbon emissions based on the energy consumption of rural residents and agricultural production from 2000 to 2018 in China, and the spatial-temporal evolution and variation of rural carbon emissions were analyzed using the quadrant diagram method and Theil index, which also further identified the contribution elements of rural carbon emissions. The gradual growth of rural carbon emissions in China’s provinces has been accompanied by a spatial clustering of high emissions, and the carbon emissions among the country’s eight regions are characterized by large inter-regional and small intra-regional differences. By identifying the carbon emissions contributions of regions and the carbon sources, we found that the provinces in the central region produce the most emissions, with the top 3 of 11 provinces contributing up to 61.56% of the total national production. Furthermore, emissions from the dominant carbon source in rural China, raw coal, has decreased to 49.22%, and the low use of electricity and natural gas results in the structure of rural carbon sources being weakly decarbonized. The decomposition of carbon emissions indicated that rural economic development plays a prominent contributory role in carbon emissions, whereas energy consumption per unit output value has a significant inhibitory effect on carbon emissions. This study contributes to current carbon emission-related research by identifying the main contributors of rural carbon emissions from multiple perspectives.

Digital inclusive finance and rural consumption structure – evidence from Peking University digital inclusive financial index and China household finance survey

PurposeThis paper examines the impact and mechanism of China's digital inclusive finance on rural consumption upgrade. First, the impact of the development of digital inclusive finance on the upgrading of rural household consumption structure is to be theoretically analyzed and empirically tested. Secondly, in terms of heterogeneity analysis, it pays attention to the age heterogeneity of users that digital inclusive finance influencing rural residents' developmental consumption upgrade, which is related to the issue of intergenerational “digital gap”. Thirdly, the mechanism of digital inclusive finance in promoting rural consumption upgrade is to be investigated. Finally, how to promote the role of digital inclusive finance in upgrading the structure of rural consumption to a developmental demand level will be showed.Design/methodology/approachFrom the perspective of the micro-household, this study is conducted by using the instrumental variable (IV) method, with 2SLS model and IV-Tobit model, based on the matched city-level data of Digital Inclusive Financial Index (DIFI) with the Chinese Household Financial Survey (CHFS). “The relief degree of land surface” is an ideal instrumental variable of digital inclusive finance, for including regional altitude difference and terrain factors of regional area, has theoretical influence on the development of digital inclusive finance, and is not affected by other economic variables.FindingsThe conclusions show that the digital inclusive finance plays a significant role in promoting the rural households' developmental consumption, but has no significant effect on the rural households' survival-type consumption and hedonistic consumption. Furthermore, this paper examines the impact and mechanism of China's digital inclusive finance on rural consumption upgrade. First, the impact of the development of digital inclusive finance on the upgrading of rural household consumption structure is to be theoretically analyzed and empirically tested. Secondly, it is discovered that digital inclusive finance is age heterogeneous in promoting the upgrade of consumption structure of rural household, and its effect on the elderly is weaker than that on the young for the intergenerational “digital gap”. Thirdly, these conclusions reveal that the digital inclusive finance does affect the consumption of rural residents through three mechanisms: increasing income and wealth, easing liquidity constraints and facilitating payment methods. Finally, how to promote the role of digital inclusive finance in upgrading the structure of rural consumption to a developmental demand level will be showed.Originality/valueThe current research on the relationship between digital inclusive finance and rural consumption only stays at the level of total rural consumption and has not stressed the structural problems of rural consumption. Can digital inclusive finance promote the upgrade of rural consumption structure? To what level can digital inclusive finance promote the upgrading of rural consumption structure? Therefore, it is of great theoretical value to study the upgrading of rural consumption structure from the micro level. Can the current digital inclusive finance benefit the elderly and help break the vulnerability of the elderly to enjoy finance? In this regard, evidence of heterogeneity remains to be provided.

Empirical Study on Relationship between Income Structure and Consumption of Rural Residents in Jiangsu

Empirical Study on Relationship between Income Structure and Consumption of Rural Residents in Jiangsu

Influencing Factors of Commercial Energy Consumption Intention of Rural Residents: Evidence from Rural Chengdu

With rapid rural urbanization and new rural construction, the commercial energy consumption of rural residents shows a trend of rapid growth, and China’s rural areas are also faced with environmental challenges brought by the increase of commercial energy consumption. China’s commercial energy consumption behavior of rural residents has also undergone tremendous changes. However, scholars have neglected the research on rural residents’ commercial energy consumption intention from a micro perspective. Therefore, this study takes the 5 villages in Chengdu out of the 100 representative villages in the Sichuan province as examples. From the perspective of the head of a family of permanent rural residents, extended planned behavior theory, exploratory factor analysis, and structural equation modeling are used to explore the influencing factors of rural resident commercial energy consumption intention and their relationship. Findings show that subjective norm, perceived behavioral control (PBC), and habit significantly affect residents’ behavioral intention. Habits significantly influence subjective norms and PBC. Therefore, in the new rural construction, rural residents are the main body and participants of energy consumption. Local government departments should plan reasonably according to the needs and characteristics of residents, constantly improve commercial energy infrastructure, improve service level, and further strengthen farmers’ attitude and satisfaction toward commercial energy. Moreover, they should increase the publicity and education of commercial energy, advocate green housing, and promote energy saving consumption reduction, and sustainable development in new rural areas.

A Review of the Influence of Rural Public Goods Supply on Rural Residents’ Consumption—A Case Study of 2009-2019

The supply of rural public goods and the consumption of rural residents are not only an important symbol of the quality of life of rural residents, but also reflect the satisfaction of the majority of rural residents to a better life. At the same time, the supply of rural public goods and the consumption of rural residents are also the “engine” and “ballast stone”. The supply of rural public goods and the consumption of rural residents are the “Chinese experience” to solve the crisis. In the early days of the founding of the people’s Republic of China, the reform and opening up of the production package, the soft landing of the 2008 financial tsunami was a solution to the crisis by adjusting the supply of rural public goods. In the face of the complex situation of the current international economy and the influence of the epidemic situation, a new development pattern with the large domestic circulation as the main body and the domestic and international double circulation promoting each other can not only resolve the overproduction of the city, but also realize the redistribution of urban and rural resources by stimulating consumption. The research on the supply of rural public goods in China has been fruitful. From 2009 to 2019, there were 2729 articles on the supply of rural public goods and the consumption of rural residents.

Social-Psychological Factors in Food Consumption of Rural Residents: The Role of Perceived Need and Habit within the Theory of Planned Behavior.

To address the problem of malnutrition in poor rural areas of China, this study aims to examine the effects of social-psychological factors in food consumption of rural residents in poor counties of Southwest China. In addition, it investigates the role of perceived need and habit within the theory of planned behavior (TPB) in predicting food consumption. A survey with random sampling was conducted on rural residents (n = 424), and the theoretical frameworks of both the standard and extended TPB were applied for comparison purposes. Structural equation modeling was applied to test the relationships among constructs. Consumption of five food items was studied, respectively: meat, eggs, dairy, fish, and fruits. Results showed that incorporation of perceived need and habit substantially increased the explanatory power of the TPB, but these factors only had significant direct effects on intention rather than behavior. Perceived need and habit are stronger predictors of intention than any other TPB construct for consumption of all food items except for meat. We found indirect effects of the constructs in the extended TPB model on consumption to be different across food items. Practical implications to improve consumption of different food items were proposed accordingly.

Food consumption and its local dependence: A case study in the Xilin Gol Grassland, China

Food consumption research is an important part of ecosystem service consumption research. Studying regional food consumption patterns and their dependence on local areas can provide important reference for research on regional resource utilization and sustainable development. The grassland areas selected for this study including a typical pastoral grassland area, a sandyland and an agro-pastoral transition zone in the Xilin Gol Grassland, Inner Mongolia. We analyzed food consumption of rural residents and its dependence on local ecosystems based on a primary (first-hand) household food tracking survey conducted from August 2017 to July 2018, data from a 2017 household questionnaire survey and a local market survey in the study areas in combination with land-use data and socioeconomic data from China. Results showed three distinct food consumption patterns along Xilin Gol Grassland transects. The quantity of per capita food consumption in each typical area decreased from north to south areas, which also showed that the dominant type of food consumption shift from animal to plant food. Moreover, we found that local production can provide local residents with most of the food they require. Local production supply has had an important impact on the food consumption patterns of the local people, while residents had a certain preference for food produced from other external regions, and this demand is gradually increasing. The food consumption demands of residents showed a trend in diversified development. This study could provide empirical reference to policymakers for regional resource management.

Structural decomposition analysis of carbon emissions from residential consumption in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, China

Economic development has promoted urbanization in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH) region. With the improvement of living standards, residential consumption have become an important contributor to regional carbon emissions. Using an input-output model, we calculated direct and indirect carbon emissions from both urban and rural residential consumption in the BTH region from 2002 to 2012, and then explored the main factors contributing to indirect carbon emissions from residential consumption using a structural decomposition analysis. Results showed that direct carbon emissions from residential consumption increased from 47.13 million tons (MtC) in 2002 to 123.34 MtC in 2012 and indirect carbon emissions from residential consumption increased from 210.36 MtC in 2002 to 550.00 MtC in 2012. Carbon emission intensity and residential consumption level were the main factors affecting indirect carbon emissions during 2002–2012, with varying effects in different sub-regions. Carbon emission intensity played negative effects in Beijing (−37.19 MtC) and Tianjin (−55.39 MtC), positive effects in Hebei (92.89 MtC). Residential consumption level played positive effects in the three sub-regions (79.94 MtC in Beijing, 31.91 MtC in Tianjin and 155.52 MtC in Hebei). Increases in intermediate demand, residential consumption level and population size enhanced indirect carbon emissions. Based on the analysis, this paper contributed to carbon emission reduction strategies in the BTH region.

Is the implementation of the Increasing Block Electricity Prices policy really effective?--- Evidence based on the analysis of synthetic control method

The implementation of Increasing Block Electricity Prices (IBEPs) aims to guide residents towards electricity savings and rational energy use, but there are questions over the effectiveness of the IBEPs to achieve these goals. To this end, this paper uses residential IBEPs policy implemented in Sichuan Province of China in 2006 as a natural experiment to answer the question of whether IBEPs effectively regulate residents’ electricity demand. Synthetic control method (SCM) was used to evaluate the treatment effect of the policy. The paper finds that the IBEPs policy significantly reduces urban and rural residential electricity consumption. The per capita electricity consumption of urban residents fell by 26.87–100.76 kWh/year with an average of 51.40 kWh/year, equivalent to a decrease of 5.93%–17.50% and average of 11.17%. On the other hand, the per capita electricity consumption of rural residents decreased by 20.86–48.28 kWh/year with an average of 26.28 kWh/year, which is equivalent of a decreased of 7.8%–16.79% and average of 12.75%. Electricity demand in urban areas decreased more than in rural areas, but rural residents are more sensitive to IBEPs than urban residents. In order to achieve “equity” and “efficiency”, China needs to further improve the design mechanism of residential IBEPs.

Does health insurance promote people's consumption? New evidence from China

In order to change the situation that reimbursement rate of the new rural cooperative medical care system (NCMS) was too low to alleviate farmers medical burden, in August 2012, China began to expand the coverage of the NCMS to include the treatment of critical illnesses. Could more effective health insurance promote the consumption of rural residents? We studied the impact of the critical illness insurance (CII) on rural household consumption, and find that the CII increases per capita household daily consumption by >15%. But healthcare and medical expenditures have not been affected. Our comparison of outcomes for households with different levels of consumption and income shows the CII mainly promote the consumption of rural affluent family, but no incentive for poor family, resulting in deterioration of consumption inequality of rural households. The finding is robust to various alternative hypotheses and specifications.

The Research on Economic Development Based on Entropy Method and Grey Relational Analysis – from the Perspective of Residents’ Consumption Level

This article is based on the consumption function theory, with the development of domestic economic, consumption is the main driver of the economic and the leading factor on the growth of GDP. Obviously, the residents' consumption level can represent the trend of consumption of residents. Finding the incentive and analysing the reasons can contribute to sustainable economy. Five influencing factors are selected including the per capita fiscal expenditure, the consumer price index, commodity retail price index, the urban and rural residents' per capita deposits, residents' per capita income. Then, the entropy method is adopted to evaluate each index and assign weight. Combining with the grey relational analysis, we prefer to use the entropy weight of each factor rather than use the average coefficient for more comprehensive and reasonable results. And the comprehensive correlation degree is calculated. Finally, we select the statistical yearbook of Chengdu from 2007 to 2015, and the empirical analysis is carried out on the factors which influencing the residents' consumption level. The results show that the residents' per capita income not only takes the most important role in these factors, but also develops a gap gradually. The fiscal expenditure promotes the improvement of the residents' consumption level and the economy has been boosted. However the consumption of rural residents is prevented by the high deposits and it has led to an economic depression in some areas. We combine the two methods and analyse from the perspective of macro and micro angle, the influence of consumption on sustainable economic growth has been analysed based on these five factors, and the comprehensive analysis and reasonable suggestions are given in order to promote sustained economic development.