Internet usage, farmer entrepreneurship, and common prosperity: evidence from a large micro-data in China

Abstract Common prosperity is an important characteristic of the Chinese path to modernization, and promoting farmers’ entrepreneurship is the key to achieving the goal of common prosperity. Based on the data from the 2019 China Household Finance Survey (CHFS), this paper empirically analyzes the interaction between Internet use, farmer entrepreneurship, and achieving common prosperity. The results of the mechanism analysis show that Internet use can help reduce the wealth gap by promoting farmers’ entrepreneurial willingness to obtain more wealth, especially in groups with weak information processing skills. Non-income factors such as digital entrepreneurship networks, farmers’ education level, and financial literacy level all positively regulate the enhancement effect of farmers’ entrepreneurship on achieving the goal of common prosperity to varying degrees. Measures such as improving rural network facilities, improving farmers’ financial literacy, increasing digital talent cultivation, and establishing a weak entrepreneurial network concept are feasible to further promote the role of Internet use in narrowing the gap between rich and poor, and improving the popularity of Internet use can achieve better results in economically underdeveloped and poorly educated areas.