Digital Agriculture and Urbanization: Mechanism and Empirical Research

Based on theoretical mechanism analysis and provincial panel data of China, this paper empirically examines the impact effect and mechanism of digital agriculture on urbanization from both overall and structural dimensions, and then identifies the weaknesses and restrictive reasons for digital agriculture in promoting urbanization development. The theoretical analysis shows that digital agriculture influences urbanization in four ways, namely the total factor productivity enhancement mechanism, the agricultural labor division acceleration mechanism, the marketization process mechanism, and the human capital mechanism. The empirical test suggests that digital agriculture has significantly promoted urbanization across the sample period, and the effect has shown certain stability, sustainability, and durability. According to the contribution decomposition of digital agriculture sub-indexes, the quality of agricultural operational entities contributes the most to urbanization, followed by digital agricultural infrastructure. However, contrary to expectations, digital agriculture industrialization as measured by Taobao Village has the least impact on urbanization. Further mechanism tests indicate that digital agriculture promotes urbanization through the agricultural labor division acceleration mechanism, which is consistent with the theoretical expectation, suggesting that it is the driving force for urbanization. However, the performances of digital agriculture in the human capital mechanism, total factor productivity enhancement mechanism, and marketization process mechanism are inconsistent with the theoretical expectations, which are the main reasons for restricting the role of digital agriculture in promoting urbanization.

Automated summary

This paper examines the impact and mechanism of digital agriculture on urbanization in China, using both theoretical analysis and empirical tests. It finds that digital agriculture has significantly promoted urbanization through the agricultural labor division acceleration mechanism, but its performances in human capital mechanism, total factor productivity enhancement mechanism, and marketization process mechanism are inconsistent with theoretical expectations, which restrict its role in promoting urbanization.