Recently, Assistant Researcher Duan Wenqi, Professor Jiang Mingming and Professor Qi Jianhong from the School of Economics, alongside Associate Professor Shi Qing from Shanghai University, co-authored the paper When e-commerce meets smallholders: Boosting incomes and widening gaps in rural China’s anti-poverty policy, published online in American Journal of Agricultural Economics (AJAE), an internationally authoritative journal in agricultural economics. This research evaluates the impacts of China’s E-Commerce into Rural Areas (ECC) initiative—the world’s largest e-commerce poverty alleviation program in developing countries—on smallholder agricultural income and its distribution, delivering valuable insights for global poverty reduction endeavors.
The ECC program leverages the emerging internet business model of e-commerce to effectively connect small-scale farmers with large markets, resolving market access barriers in targeted poverty alleviation and thereby boosting agricultural operating incomes of smallholders, especially poor rural households. Treating the phased rollout of the ECC program as a policy shock, this study is the first to systematically assess the program’s effects on smallholders’ agricultural operating income and income distribution patterns within a causal identification framework. Additionally, by integrating multi-dimensional micro data including internet usage statistics, Taobao Village distribution, household online store operation records, and farmers’ cropping structure data, the paper further explores the internal channels through which ECC policies drive income growth and widen income gaps, furnishing granular empirical evidence for understanding the complex effects of e-commerce-based poverty alleviation.
The study yields three key findings. First, ECC policy implementation significantly raises households’ per capita agricultural operating income, with sustained income growth effects after policy rollout. Second, ECC boosts smallholders’ agricultural operating income through multiple channels: online sales expand market access, expand operational scales, raise agricultural product selling prices, and shift cropping structures toward high-value-added crops. Third, notably, while ECC fuels income growth, it also exacerbates income stratification among farmers: the Gini coefficient of household agricultural operating income rises by approximately 10% post-implementation. Further analysis indicates that disparities in farmers’ initial human capital, production capital and digital capital endowments constitute the primary drivers of widening income gaps—households with superior resource endowments and stronger capabilities capture most dividends from the digital economy. These findings reveal the double-edged sword effect of digital technologies in poverty reduction: while e-commerce policies unlock income growth potential, they must be paired with supporting interventions such as skill training and financial support to lower participation thresholds for vulnerable groups and advance inclusive shared development.
Duan Wenqi, Assistant Researcher and Master’s Supervisor at the School of Economics, is selected for the Young Scholars Future Program of Shandong University. Her research focuses on international economics, digital economy and supply chain governance. Her papers have appeared in journals including Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Journal of Corporate Finance, Southern Economic Journal, and China Industrial Economics. She presides over the National Natural Science Foundation for Young Scientists, Shandong Provincial Natural Science Foundation for Young Scientists, and China Postdoctoral Science Foundation.
Jiang Mingming, Professor and Doctoral Supervisor at the School of Economics and Future Program Scholar of Shandong University, holds a PhD in Economics from the University of California, Riverside, USA. His research covers macroeconomics, macrofinance and applied econometrics. He has published over 20 academic papers in domestic and international top journals such as Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Macroeconomic Dynamics, Journal of Banking and Finance, and Economica. His research outcomes have won Excellent Achievements Awards for Humanities and Social Sciences from Shandong Provincial Universities, Excellent Research Achievements Award of Shandong Provincial Human Resources and Social Security Department, and Shandong Provincial Statistical Research Outstanding Achievement Award. He presides over general projects of the National Social Science Fund of China, the National Natural Science Foundation for Young Scientists, Scientific Research Foundation for Returned Overseas Chinese Scholars of the Ministry of Education, Shandong Provincial Social Science Planning Projects, and general projects of Shandong Provincial Natural Science Foundation.
Qi Jianhong, Distinguished Taishan Scholar of Shandong Province, Distinguished Young and Middle-Aged Scholar of Shandong University, Second-Class Professor and Doctoral Supervisor at the School of Economics, serves as Chief Expert for major projects of the National Social Science Fund of China. Her core research fields include international economics, with specific directions in artificial intelligence and export upgrading, foreign direct investment (FDI), and international trade theory and policy. She has published more than 100 academic papers in CSSCI and SSCI core journals including Economic Research Journal, World Economy, China Industrial Economics, Journal of Financial Research, China Economic Review, Journal of Environmental Economics and Management (JEEM), Journal of Corporate Finance (JCF), and Journal of Economics and Management Strategy (JEMS). She presides over multiple national and provincial research projects such as major projects of the National Social Science Fund, National Natural Science Foundation projects, National Social Science Fund projects, humanities and social science research projects of the Ministry of Education, and China Postdoctoral Science Foundation.
