Development of platform economy and rural entrepreneurial activity

平台经济发展与农村创业活跃度

Abstract

Rural entrepreneurship is an important way to promote rural economic development, help rural revitalization and promote common prosperity. Since the implementation of the rural revitalization strategy, the countryside has possessed a certain amount of population and capital conducive to entrepreneurship as a result of improved infrastructure, higher incomes and weakened barriers to population mobility. In particular, rural areas on the outskirts of cities have become ideal venues for entrepreneurial activities, thanks to the advantages of their location and the relatively low cost of land and labor. In recent years, the platform economy has developed rapidly, covering many industries such as e-commerce, digital media, online education, transportation, short-term rentals, and home services. It has many advantages such as broadening market boundaries, improving the efficiency of resource allocation, expanding employment, improving income distribution, and promoting common prosperity in urban and rural areas. Platform economy has made up for the disadvantages of rural areas in location space, alleviated the difficulties faced by rural residents such as blocked information and incomplete industrial chain services, and shaped the era background that can not be ignored in the current research on rural entrepreneurship. In summary, platform economy brings new opportunities for promoting rural entrepreneurship and employment. Exploring the intrinsic law of the platform economy affecting rural entrepreneurial activity is of great significance in stimulating the vitality of rural economic development and realizing rural revitalization. The main work of this paper is threefold. First, based on the clarification that the platform economy lowers the entrepreneurial threshold and widens the entrepreneurial channel, this paper constructs a two-way fixed-effects model using provincial panel data from 2013-2019 to systematically examine the impact of the platform economy on rural entrepreneurial activity. Second, this paper empirically examines how the platform economy enhances rural entrepreneurial activity through channels such as lowering the entrepreneurial threshold of rural residents and attracting factor inflows. Finally, this paper innovatively examines the threshold role of rural financial development level and urban-rural income gap on the entrepreneurial effect of platform economy. According to geographical location, it also explores the impact of platform economy development index, platform-based infrastructure, platform-based application, and platform-based output on rural entrepreneurship activity. The relevant conclusions can provide reference for the government to formulate accurate rural entrepreneurship policies. It is found that the development of the platform economy can significantly contribute to the increase of rural entrepreneurial activity, and the results remain robust after accounting for endogeneity issues. Mechanism analysis shows that the platform economy promotes rural entrepreneurship by reducing the difficulty of starting a business for rural residents and attracting capital inflows and labor returns. The threshold test shows that the promotion effect of the platform economy on rural entrepreneurship activity is characterized by increasing marginal benefits as the level of rural financial development increases, and the urban-rural income gap makes the impact of the platform economy on rural entrepreneurship activity show an "inverted U-shaped" trend of first expanding and then decreasing. In addition, there is regional heterogeneity in the impact of platform economy on rural entrepreneurial activity. The platform economy has a significant promoting effect on entrepreneurial activity in the eastern region, but its development in other regions has not yet achieved the expected results. To this end, local governments should continuously strengthen policy support and guidance for the development of the platform economy, continuously optimize the rural entrepreneurial environment and improve the availability of financial services for rural entrepreneurs, in order to reduce the cost of entrepreneurship for farmers and promote rural revitalization.