Reversal of Policy Expectations: Unexpected Intensification of Urban-Rural Income Inequality in Digital Infrastructure Construction

As the core of China's development in the digital era, digital infrastructure has achieved leapfrog development and rapid nationwide coverage through robust policy support and capital investment since the implementation of the "Broadband China" policy. However, whether digital infrastructure plays a positive role in urban-rural development and how such a role is realized have been issues of concern to various stakeholders. To scientifically investigate these questions, this paper analyzes the impact of digital infrastructure on the urban-rural income gap by utilizing data on the urban-rural income disparity across 290 prefecture-level cities in China from 2010 to 2020, and constructing a quasi-natural experiment with the release of the "Broadband China" policy during 2014-2016 as an exogenous shock. The study finds that: digital infrastructure construction widens the urban-rural income gap; mediation tests reveal that digital infrastructure further expands the urban-rural income gap through industrial structure; and spatial econometric tests indicate that due to the digital "siphon effect", digital infrastructure construction leads to the expansion of regional urban-rural income disparities. Based on the above findings, this paper proposes optimization pathways including balancing urban-rural digital infrastructure investment, strengthening rural industrial upgrading, and establishing urban-rural coordinated development mechanisms, aiming to provide theoretical support and policy implications for fully leveraging the role of digital infrastructure construction in driving China's urban-rural development.