Impact of Information Access on Poverty Alleviation Effectiveness: Evidence From China

In studying China’s targeted poverty alleviation policy, this paper models the interaction between local governments and poor households with an evolutionary game. The model predicts that bolstering information access of rural residents can significantly improve the effectiveness of poverty alleviation. Using data from the Chinese General Social Survey (CGSS) for 2015, we test this prediction by employing Internet use, TV-viewing and radio-listening as proxy variables of information access. OLS and probit regressions show significant positive effects of targeted people’s information access on various measures of poverty alleviation success. Estimations through propensity score matching (PSM) yield similar results. The findings highlight the importance of information access in global poverty alleviation efforts.