Table 4 Baseline regression results.

Digital education (principal component analysis)

0.417***

0.256***

(29.98)

(34.80)

Digital education (summed)

0.445***

0.274***

(32.17)

(36.66)

Gender

− 0.066***

− 0.064***

− 0.044***

− 0.043***

(− 3.13)

(− 3.01)

(− 3.78)

(− 3.68)

Age

− 0.041***

− 0.040***

− 0.019***

− 0.019***

(− 50.26)

(− 49.94)

(− 43.81)

(− 43.33)

Marital status

− 0.155***

− 0.154***

− 0.052***

− 0.052***

(− 5.75)

(− 5.73)

(− 3.13)

(− 3.09)

Health condition

0.074***

0.073***

0.036***

0.035***

(8.12)

(7.98)

(6.37)

(6.25)

Years of education

0.034***

0.033***

0.016***

0.016***

(14.70)

(14.36)

(14.37)

(14.17)

Family size

− 0.004

− 0.004

0.005

0.006

(− 0.66)

(− 0.61)

(1.33)

(1.56)

Total family income

0.129***

0.126***

0.086***

0.083***

(17.90)

(17.58)

(17.25)

(16.93)

Total family assets

0.277***

0.269***

0.233***

0.228***

(34.16)

(33.23)

(43.75)

(42.96)

Total family debt

0.016***

0.016***

0.001

0.001

(8.43)

(8.47)

(0.93)

(0.98)

Engagement in business

− 0.656***

− 0.645***

− 0.429***

− 0.422***

(− 18.42)

(− 18.12)

(− 22.38)

(− 22.07)

Ownership of housing

0.620***

0.617***

0.057***

0.055***

(18.01)

(17.86)

(4.75)

(4.63)

Proportion of education expenditure in public finance

3.854***

4.028***

1.466*

1.543*

(3.00)

(3.12)

(1.80)

(1.90)

Proportion of science and technology expenditure in public finance

5.245**

5.508**

3.117**

3.260**

(2.43)

(2.55)

(2.43)

(2.55)

Regional GDP

− 0.146***

− 0.154***

− 0.061**

− 0.064***

(− 3.30)

(− 3.48)

(− 2.57)

(− 2.70)

Province fixed effects

Y

Y

Y

Y

Cons

− 1.518***

− 2.509***

− 2.948***

− 3.579***

(− 4.29)

(− 7.07)

(− 15.72)

(− 19.10)

N

33,436

33,436

33,436

33,436

R²

0.3741

0.3771

0.1446

0.1457