Abstract:

In the process of promoting rural residents to "increase income and shrink gap" and realize common prosperity, digital village construction is expected. This paper simultaneously evaluates the dual impact of digital village construction on rural residents' income growth and gap and analyzes the underlying causes and mechanisms from the perspective of elite capture. The research found that the current digital village construction in China has not only promoted the income of rural residents but also expanded the inequality of their internal income distribution, with a significant "raising but expansion" effect. The main reason for the dual effect is that there is an obvious phenomenon of "Elite capture" in the income increase effect of digital village construction: the income increase effect of elite farmers with higher social and economic status, such as high–income, male, highly educated, high assets, and in developed areas, is greater, while the income in- crease effect of vulnerable farmers is smaller. The mechanism analysis shows that the digital village construction mainly leads to the increase but expansion effect through the three elite capture channels of digital literacy, entrepreneurial action, and financial assets. In the future, it needs to pay attention to the digital assistance of rural nonelite groups, realize the effective conversion from income expansion to income contraction, and help common prosperity, while the expansion the quantity and quality of expansion are reasonable and the quality is steadily improved.

Key words:

common prosperity, digital village construction, income raising but expansion, elite capture