In this SCCEI seminar, INSEAD professor Wesley Koo and Stanford professor Chuck Eesley present their research on "A Confluence of Tech and Talent: Rural Online Entrepreneurship and Return Migration."
Prior research indicates that the Internet can elevate the rural economy by connecting rural entrepreneurs to the wider market. In this study, we show that return migration is a crucial factor for the performance of e-commerce in rural areas. Using data from a leading ecommerce platform, we set up a natural experiment involving a provincial-level policy change that reduced the barriers for talented rural migrants to return and work in their home villages. In a difference-in-differences design, we find that after the policy change, rural e-commerce businesses in the province that implemented the policy change enjoyed a 22 percent performance gain relative to other rural businesses.
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