财经问题研究

信息消费已成为畅通经济循环、引领产业升级和打造新经济增长点的关键动力。本文基于国家信息消费试点政策，以2008—2021年中国280个地级市及以上城市为研究对象，采用交叠双重差分模型实证检验信息消费对居民收入差距的影响及作用机制。研究结果显示，信息消费能够缩小居民收入差距，该结果在经过稳健性检验后仍然成立；信息消费通过促进数实融合、提升创业活跃度缩小居民收入差距；信息消费缩小居民收入差距的效应发生在非长江经济带城市、高对外开放程度城市及非资源型城市的样本中。本文研究结论对提振信息消费和扎实推动共同富裕具有重要的启示意义。

New formats and emerging hotspots in information consumption continue to arise. In the context of China's economic transformation and upgrading, information consumption has assumed an increasingly pivotal role. It has become a key driver of digital technology advancement, a catalyst for supply-side innovation, and a critical source of new momentum for economic growth. Moreover, it serves as an essential pathway for enhancing public welfare and improving the quality of life for residents. While existing literature predominantly examines the impact of information consumption on urban green development, economic performance, technological innovation, and enterprise transformation, far less attention has been paid to its effects on income inequality and the underlying mechanisms.This paper utilizes panel data from 280 prefecture-level and above cities in China from 2008 to 2021. Treating the national information consumption pilot policy as a quasi-natural experiment, this paper constructs city-level Gini coefficients using intercalibrated DMSP/OLS and NPP/VIIRS nighttime light data to measure intra-urban income inequality. This paper employs a staggered difference-in-differences(DID) framework to assess whether information consumption narrows the income gap among residents. Baseline regression results indicate that the development of information consumption significantly reduces income inequality. This finding remains robust across a battery of tests, including Goodman-Bacon decomposition, parallel trends validation, and placebo experiments. Mechanism analysis reveals that the integration of the digital and real economies, along with heightened entrepreneurial activity, mediates the inequality reducing effect of information consumption. Heterogeneity analyses further show that the magnitude of this effect varies significantly by economic belt, the degree of opening-up to international trade, and local resource endowments.Compared with prior research, this paper makes the following contributions. First, in terms of research perspective, it integrates information consumption and income inequality into a unified analytical framework, thereby broadening the scope for evaluating the socioeconomic impacts of information consumption policies. Second, in terms of substantive focus, it shifts attention to the “fair distribution of the economic pie”—emphasizing equity within cities—and offers new empirical evidence supporting China's goal of common prosperity. Third, in terms of analytical depth, it draws on industrial agglomeration theory and human capital theory to systematically uncover the channels through which information consumption affects income distribution, while providing nuanced empirical insights into the heterogeneity of these effects, thereby enriching relevant literature on underlying mechanisms.