Internet use and rural residents' income growth

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the direct effects of Internet use on rural residents' income growth and the indirect effects of increasing their income by promoting rural residents' entrepreneurial and non-agricultural employment.Design/methodology/approachRegarding the implementation of the rural revitalization strategy, based on the 2016CFPS data, multiple linear regression analysis and mediation effect analysis are used. To decrease the potential endogeneity of the model, we used the instrumental variable in the model.FindingsThe results show that: (1) Internet use has a direct effect on rural residents' income growth; (2) rural residents' entrepreneurial or non-agricultural employment affects the mechanism of Internet use and their income growth, so that can perform an indirect promotion effect; (3) the direct promotion effect of Internet use is stronger than the indirect promotion effect of entrepreneurship and non-agricultural employment.Originality/valueThe effect of using Internet for the income growth of Chinese farmers has been confirmed by some scholars, but the specific mechanism is still relatively vague. The originality is to consider the intermediary transmission effect of entrepreneurship and non-agricultural employment in the study of the impact of Internet use on Chinese farmers' income growth, and use the mediation effect model for empirical analysis. The empirical research results further reveal this mechanism.