Search

This paper analysed the impact of the digital economy on the urban-rural income gap. The results reveal that the development of the digital economy has significantly narrowed the urban-rural income gap in China. The level of urbanization and the upgrading of industrial structure are the important influencing mechanisms, which means that the digital economy can narrow the urban-rural income gap by elevating the level of urbanization and promoting the upgrading of industrial structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the impact of Internet use on informal employment, and the study found that Internet use can reduce the probability of labourers choosing informal employment. Such an impact is heterogeneous for different groups of labourers, especially significant for the group of labourers from rural regions aged between 21 to 30 years old with a bachelor's degree or above. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the 2015 China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS), the difference in returns to schooling between formal and informal employment was empirically analysed using the IV-Heckman model. It is found in the research that there are significant differences in the average income and level of educational human capital between formal and informal employment, and that returns to schooling of formal employment is much higher than that of informal employment. In addition, the propensity score matching (PSM) method was used to study the returns to schooling of high school and university of the two employment groups. The results indicate that returns to schooling of high school and university of the formal employment are significantly higher than those of the informal employment group, while the difference in returns to schooling of university is greater than that of high school. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]