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01.08.2024 | Research Paper

Broadband Infrastructure and Happiness of Rural Households in China

verfasst von: Mingzhi Hu, Yuming Yang, Yinxin Su, Xiaofen Yu

Erschienen in: Journal of Happiness Studies | Ausgabe 6/2024

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Abstract

Through an analysis of the Chinese labor-force dynamics survey (CLDS) data, our study investigates the relationship between broadband infrastructure and happiness among rural households. By leveraging the “Rural BROADBAND” project as an exogenous shock for broadband infrastructure and employing a difference-in-differences (DID) framework, we find that households benefiting from this project experience higher levels of overall happiness after controlling for observables. We put forth two plausible explanations for this noteworthy finding. First, broadband infrastructure facilitates social connections among households by enabling the use of internet-based communication applications. Second, it enhances convenience in daily life by expanding internet accessibility. Furthermore, our research reveals that the positive impact of the broadband construction project on the overall happiness of rural households increases with household income.

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Fußnoten
2
Specifically, with the advancements in technology and transportation, the world has become more interconnected than ever before. Effective interpersonal communication is essential to understanding diverse perspectives and building relationships that lead to social and economic resources. Besides, the rise of digital communication tools has transformed how people connect with each other. Interpersonal communication becomes crucial to fostering meaningful connections and establishing trust in an online environment.
 
3
Although the broadband construction project started in 2014, we assigned the year of 2014 to the pre-treatment period mainly for two reasons. First, the government launched the broadband construction project on June 10, 2014 and it takes a long time to complete the project. Actually, the government aims to finish the main work of the project by the end of 2015. Second, the CLDS 2014 was conducted from July to September 2014. Thus, respondents in CLDS 2014 are barely impacted by the broadband construction project.
 
4
We thank the Associate Editor and the anonymous reviewer for their suggestion to use this model specification.
 
5
We follow Levinson (2012) and estimate the average marginal rate of substitution between household income and broadband infrastructure that would leave respondents equally happy. Considering the coefficient of Post * Treat and Log(Household income) in column (3) of Table 2, along with the mean household income (¥13,942), the average marginal rate of substitution is calculated as ¥54,839 (i.e., 13,942 * 0.118/0.03). In other words, the "Rural Broadband" project increases the happiness score by 0.118 for the treatment group compared to the control group, resulting in an increase of ¥54,839 in annual income or ¥150 per day.
 
6
We have conducted several additional robustness checks. First, we implement the PSM-DID approach based on one-to-one matching, and the results remain consistent across the matched samples. Second, we re-estimate the baseline equation using a sample of urban households. This allows us to assess the effect of the "Rural Broadband" project on urban residents, who are not expected to be significantly affected by the increase in broadband service supply in rural areas. As expected, our findings reveal that the effect of the project on the happiness of urban households is not statistically significant. Third, we re-estimate our models using cluster-robust standard errors at either the community or province level to account for serial correlations. The results remain consistent after implementing the cluster-robust standard error estimation. Fourth, there is the potential bias in our estimates due to migration between the treatment and control groups, particularly during the post-treatment period. In our study, only a small proportion of households (6.46%, or 2,746 out of 42,500) are identified as migrants who do not hold a local hukou. Given this low migration rate, the potential bias introduced by migration could be minimal in our analysis. To further address this concern, we estimate the regression model while excluding all migrants in our sample. The results remain consistent after excluding migrants. Fifth, we introduce interactions between the control variables and the Post dummy variable to account for the influence of observable factors on the outcome variable varying between the pre- and post-treatment periods. The inclusion of these additional controls aligns with our main findings.
 
Literatur
Zurück zum Zitat Layard, R. (2005). Happiness: Lessons from a New Science. Penguin. Layard, R. (2005). Happiness: Lessons from a New Science. Penguin.
Metadaten
Titel
Broadband Infrastructure and Happiness of Rural Households in China
verfasst von
Mingzhi Hu
Yuming Yang
Yinxin Su
Xiaofen Yu
Publikationsdatum
01.08.2024
Verlag
Springer Netherlands
Erschienen in
Journal of Happiness Studies / Ausgabe 6/2024
Print ISSN: 1389-4978
Elektronische ISSN: 1573-7780
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-024-00797-w