Invisible Threads Weaving a New Fabric: How Digitalization Is Reshaping Work and Life in Undeveloped Areas

ABSTRACT

While digitalization is reshaping work and life globally, its micro‐level impacts on individual behavior in undeveloped areas remain insufficiently understood. This study examines how rural digitalization influences time allocation across paid work, housework, and leisure using data from 8774 individuals in the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS), matched with county‐level metrics from the Index of Digital Rural County. Employing an instrumental variable two‐stage least squares (IV‐2SLS) approach to address endogeneity, we find that a one‐standard‐deviation increase in rural digitalization reduces weekly work hours by 2.03 h and housework by 1.92 h, while increasing leisure by 0.81 h. These effects are associated with increased off‐farm productivity, agricultural outsourcing, farmland transfer, and online shopping. However, women experience larger reductions in work time, while men benefit more from reduced housework. Productivity and wage gains are concentrated among higher‐income individuals, suggesting that digitalization may exacerbate existing inequalities. Our findings demonstrate how rural digitalization reshapes market and nonmarket time use and highlight the need for complementary policies that promote labor‐saving outsourcing services and rural e‐commerce while addressing gender disparities and unequal access to the benefits of digital transformation.