Utility analysis of digital villages to empower balanced urban-rural development based on the three-stage DEA-Malmquist model

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 17; no. 8; p. e0270952
• Main Authors: Cao, Lingling, Niu, Huawei, Wang, YiFeng
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: San Francisco Public Library of Science 01.08.2022; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Agricultural economics; Agriculture; Biology and Life Sciences; Computer and Information Sciences; Data envelopment analysis; Digital divide; Digital technology; Digitization; Diminishing marginal utility; Earth Sciences; Economic development; Education; Efficiency; Empowerment; Engineering and Technology; Evaluation; Forecasts and trends; Innovations; Methods; Optimization; People and Places; Rural areas; Rural development; Rural urban relations; Scale efficiency; Social Sciences; Technological change; Technology and civilization; Urbanization; Villages; China
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0270952

Rural subjects, the agricultural industrial structure, public services and rural governance are fully empowered by digital villages. This empowerment effectively compensates for the urban-rural digital divide and promotes the equalization of urban-rural income, consumption, education, medical care, and governance. Based on the three-stage data envelopment analysis (DEA) model and Malmquist index, this article conducts an in-depth study of the static and dynamic efficiency trends of digital villages that empower urban-rural balanced development in 31 provinces in China from 2015 to 2020. The results show that comprehensive technical efficiency of 31 provinces is weak DEA effective, and that the scale efficiency is the main factor affecting comprehensive technical efficiency. The educational level, local finance and industrial structure optimization have a significant positive impact on efficiency evaluation, but technological innovation and the urbanization level have a significant negative impact. Total factor productivity shows diminishing marginal utility based on the Malmquist index and its decomposition change. Restricted by the change in technological progress, the efficiency of digital villages in China in enabling urban-rural equilibrium needs to be further improved.