Author(s)

Xin Wen

Corresponding Author

Xin Wen

Abstract

In the context of the continuous development of the Internet, To explore whether the Internet can bridge the income gap caused related to education, this paper selected data from 2018 China Family Panel Studies (CFPS), basing on the perspective of heterogeneity, using the OLS and treatment effect model (TEM) to analyze whether Internet use can bridge the income gap caused by education gap. The study found that Internet use has a significant impact on reducing the income gap caused by the inequality of educational resources. But the Internet is widening the income gap as well as narrowing it, because there are educational benefits to Internet use, only at a certain level of education, Internet use will bring more income. After excluding the self-selection of Internet use, the results show that the income increase effect of Internet use by rural residents is obviously better than that of urban residents. Therefore, on the basis of guaranteeing residents' right to complete compulsory education, the state should encourage Chinese residents to continue to receive higher education. At the same time, the government is supposed to increase investment in infrastructure in rural areas to guide farmers to use it and make good use of the Internet.

Keywords

Internet use; income gap; education; urban and rural areas