Data Sheet 1_Prosper or beggar thy neighbor? non-farm employment effects and spatial spillovers of China's National Digital Village Pilot Program.pdf

This study examines whether China's National Digital Village Pilot Program expands rural non-farm employment and whether its effects extend beyond pilot counties.</p>Methods<p>Using a panel of 1,450 Chinese counties and 24,111 county-year observations from 2007 to 2024, this study exploits the staggered implementation of the 2020 and 2024 pilot cohorts as a quasi-natural experiment.

The policy effect is estimated using a multi-period difference-in-differences model and cross-validated with stacked DID and the Callaway-Sant'Anna estimator. Robustness is further assessed through propensity score matching, inverse probability weighting, entropy balancing, placebo tests, and alternative samples and specifications. Transmission channels, heterogeneity, and spatial effects are also examined.</p>Results<p>The National Digital Village Pilot Program increased rural non-farm employment in pilot counties by approximately 25% relative to non-pilot counties, and the result remains robust across alternative identification and estimation strategies.