The Impact of Digital Divide on Income Inequality—from The Perspective of Industrial Structure

Abstract

The boosting digital economy not only creates new employment opportunities, but also affects the fairness of social income distribution. By analyzing and comparing the panel data of 142 countries' digital costs and income distribution indicators, this paper finds that with the income gap, digital divide has different effects on countries. The income equity of high-income countries will increase with the lower market price of digital technology, and the extensive use of digital technology will improve the production conditions, bridging the income gap within the country; Middle income countries can also benefit from the improvement of digital infrastructure, but the fragile industrial structure of low-income countries is difficult to improve productivity due to the improvement of digital conditions, and the impact on income distribution is relatively limited. It is proposed that countries with different income levels should focus on the implementation of national digitalization rather than blindly learning from the digital policies of developed countries.