# Digital literacy: The catalyst for credit access and income growth in rural households

## TL;DR

Improving digital literacy helps rural households in China earn more income by improving access to credit and other opportunities.

## Contribution

A new digital literacy assessment framework and empirical evidence on its impact on rural income growth in China.

## Key findings

- Digital literacy significantly enhances income growth among farm households.
- Digital literacy improves access to credit, which facilitates income growth.
- The impact of digital literacy varies by income level and contributes differently to agricultural and non-agricultural income.

## Abstract

To clarify the role of digital literacy improvement in farm household income growth, this paper constructs a digital literacy assessment framework covering seven dimensions and uses data from a 2023 rural survey in China to empirically examine the impact of digital literacy on farm household income. The findings indicate that digital literacy significantly enhances income growth among farm households. Mechanism analysis reveals that digital literacy improves access to credit for farm households, thereby facilitating income growth. The effect of digital literacy on household income varies by group, with the highest marginal contribution to agricultural income among low-income households and to non-agricultural income among middle to high-income households. Digital literacy positively affects income across different genders and educational levels. The findings of this study reveal that digital literacy promotes income growth among different groups of rural households in China through various pathways.