Digital Infrastructure, Urban-Rural Income Gaps, and Population Concentration: Evidence from the Broadband China Strategy

Maohua Wu, Song Li, and Wenkun Zhang. Revise and Resubmit (Second Round).

Abstract: This paper studies how China’s national broadband expansion affects urban-rural income gaps and population reallocation. Using panel data for about 200 cities from 2010 to 2022 and a difference-in-differences design, we find that digital infrastructure raises both urban and rural incomes, with larger gains in urban areas, widens the urban-rural income gap, and increases population in treated cities through urban inflows and rural outflows.