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

PLoS One. 2022 Aug 1;17(8):e0270952. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0270952. eCollection 2022.

Abstract

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.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Agriculture*
  • China
  • Efficiency
  • Humans
  • Social Planning
  • Urban Renewal
  • Urbanization*

Grants and funding

This research was supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (2022ZDPYSK02, HN), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (71871120, HN), the Excellent Social Science Application Engineering Projects of Jiangsu Province (21SYB-091, LC), and the “Blue Project” of Jiangsu Universities. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.