摘要
信息通信技术高速发展不仅极大改变了大型零售商和制造商的经营模式,其影响也随着电子商务和移动支付的普及向广大农村的下沉市场持续渗透,但农村电子商务发展是否一定促进交易主体福利提升尚存争议。本文在微观市场均衡理论和最优生产分配理论的框架下构建一个农产品“线上+线下”双渠道两期均衡模型,探讨农村电子商务发展对农产品市场均衡的影响。模型显示:农村电子商务的出现有助于增强农民的议价能力、扩大农产品交易规模、提升农产品销售利润,但电商化规模进一步扩大能否带来上述均衡结果的持续改进取决于农产品本身的保鲜特性以及农民线上经营时面临的额外成本;额外成本和保鲜难度的提高可能制约农村电子商务规模扩大的正面影响。对农户实地调查数据的实证分析表明,农村电商规模扩大有助于增加农产品交易量和提升销售利润,但线上运营的高额外成本会显著削弱电子商务发展所带来的积极效应。本文研究表明,在推进农村电商发展过程中,一方面要着力降低农民线上经营的额外成本,培育更多农民参与电商并销售更多的农产品;另一方面也要避免“一刀切”地“去中间商化”。本文结论为进一步深化我国农村电商发展提供了决策参考。
The fast development of information and communications technology(ICT)has reshaped the world from top to bottom.It not only changes the operation pattern of large retailers and manufacturers in a disruptive manner,but also continuously influences the markets in rural areas and lower-tier cities through mobile payments and e-commerce.China,the world’s largest developing economy,has experienced an explosive growth of its e-commerce in the recent decade.The transaction scale of its e-commerce industry increased from CNY 6.09 trillion in 2011 to CNY 34.81 trillion in 2019,with an average annual growth rate of about 24.35%.In 2015,over 400 million Chinese residents are involved in online shopping,which makes China replace the U.S.as the world’s biggest e-commerce market.The transaction of agricultural products in China has also embraced the development of e-commerce.Since 2009,thousands of e-commerce villages where more than 10%of households operate online businesses,appear in China one after another.E-commerce provides a new sales channel that allows even small farmers to become their own retailors and sell agricultural products to consumers thousands of kilometers away without sharing markups with a middleman.However,for small farmers,the dream of no middlemen making price spread is still far away,because middlemen such as wholesalers,e-commerce entities or agricultural product suppliers not only share the mark-up,but also take over jobs such as deep processing,advertisement,logistics and after-sales services.These jobs could be an unaffordable burden for small farmers if they want to greatly increase the amount they sell.According to a survey conducted by China Center for Agricultural Policy(CCAP)in January 2022,most farmers sell their agricultural products online through social media apps such as WeChat,and very few have registered an online shop in e-commerce platforms such as Taobao,which significantly limited their capacity of online sales.It seems that for most small farmers,even those who have online selling experience,traditional channels are still indispensable.In recent years,the development of rural e-commerce and its potential of promoting the revitalization of rural areas have caused more and more attention.However,most studies still focus on particular cases of rural e-commerce,and details about how farmers choose between online channels and traditional channels and how this channel determination mechanism influences e-commerce in rural areas have not been systematically discussed.In this paper,we construct a two-period dynamic equilibrium model in which farmers optimally distribute their agricultural products sold online and those sold through a middleman to maximize overall profits.The equilibrium wholesale price with the involvement of middlemen,equilibrium retail prices and equilibrium total sales of both channels are then compared as consumers turn from brick-and-mortar stores to online markets.We find that the increase of consumers purchasing online undoubtedly enhances farmers’bargaining power and makes them better off.The total sales of agricultural products also increase,which indicates that e-commerce can bring a more booming agricultural product market.However,whether the market condition can keep improving as more and more consumers turn to the online market depends on products’characteristics(for example,perishable or not)and the difficulty farmers face while running online businesses by themselves.The increasing online sale cost and the fact of products in the need of being sold as soon as possible due to their characteristics of difficult to be preserved for long time could limit the positive effect of the consumption channel switch of consumers on market equilibrium.We then examine the effects of the development of e-commerce in rural China on the agricultural product market based on a field survey covering 289 rural households.It is found that in communities where the scales of e-commerce are larger,farmers’sales are more profitable,which is as expected as our theoretical model.But it is also found that high online sales costs decrease farmers’profits.A further heterogeneity analysis suggests that high educational levels and experience in e-commerce related trainings are helpful in lowering online sales costs.We thus suggest that to improve the welfare of small farmers and accelerate the revitalization of rural areas,the government should take actions to encourage further development of rural e-commerce in the field of agricultural products.Particularly,online sale costs for small farmers should be lowered through improvement of infrastructures in rural areas,better public service,and more online sale trainings.In addition,qualified middlemen are still necessary for agricultural product markets.
作者
汪阳洁
黄浩通
强宏杰
黄季焜
WANG Yangjie;HUANG Haotong;QIANG Hongjie;HUANG Jikun(Business School,Central South University;China Center for Agricultural Policy,Peking University)
出处
《经济研究》
CSSCI
北大核心
2022年第8期116-136,共21页
Economic Research Journal
基金
国家自然科学基金面上项目(71873148)
国家自然科学基金重点项目(71934003)
湖南省自然科学基金优秀青年基金项目(2020JJ3051)的资助
关键词
电子商务
农产品交易成本
销售渠道
中间商
市场均衡
E-commerce
Transaction Costs of Agricultural Products
Sales Channels
Middleman
Market Equilibrium
作者简介
汪阳洁,中南大学商学院,邮政编码:410083,电子信箱:yangjie.wang@csu.edu.cn;黄浩通,中南大学商学院,邮政编码:410083,电子信箱:hhtzjy@126.com;强宏杰,中南大学商学院,邮政编码:410083,电子信箱:hongjie.qiang@csu.edu.cn;通讯作者:黄季焜,北京大学中国农业政策研究中心,邮政编码:100871,电子信箱:jkhuang.ccap@pku.edu.cn
