This paper empirically evaluates the impact of a Government-Initiated Non-Profit Ecommerce Platform (GNEP) on specialty agricultural sales, focusing specifically on Pu’er tea in China. Using a difference-in-differences methodology and a comprehensive panel dataset that covers over 90% of local tea farmers, we uncover a marked substitution effect. The implementation of GNEP leads to an average decline of 11.22% in offline household sales, while online sales see an uptick of 16.88%. Further analysis confirms a universal channel shift from offline to online sales, irrespective of both production levels and tea quality. Contrary to expectations, the overall tea sales volume remains largely stable post-launch. Additionally, premium-quality teas experience a 2.42% price boost online, while regular teas show a 0.40% decrease compared to offline prices. Mechanism analyses further indicate that the increase in online sales is driven primarily by the intensive margin instead of the extensive margin. Although the platform does not significantly expand the number of farmers engaging in online sales, it succeeds in offering a cost-effective avenue for diversifying product offerings and achieving higher prices for premium-quality products. Our study illuminates the transformative role of e-commerce platforms in rural economic development and provides essential insights for policymakers and practitioners.

Using administrative universal business registration data as well as primary offline and online surveys of small businesses (including unregistered self-employments) in China, we examine (i) whether digitization helps small and medium enterprises (SMEs) better cope with the COVID-19 pandemic, and (ii) whether the pandemic has spurred digital technology adoption. We document significant economic benefits of digitization in increasing SMEs' resilience against such a large shock, as seen through mitigated demand decline, sustainable cash flow, ability to quickly reopen, and positive outlook for growth. Post the January 2020 lockdown, firm entries exhibited a V-shaped pattern, with entries of e-commerce firms experiencing a less pronounced immediate drop and a quicker rebound. Moreover, the pandemic has accelerated the digital transformation of existing firms and the industry in multiple dimensions (e.g., altering operation scope to include e-commerce, allowing remote work, and adopting electronic information systems). The effect persists more than one year after reopening, and is more pronounced for certain sectors, firms in industrial clusters, and areas with more digital inclusion but less financial efficiency, constituting initial evidence for the long-term impact of the pandemic and the supposedly transitory mitigation policies.

基于电商平台的消费信贷的出现，给金融监管者带来了新的挑战。本文利用模型分析了电商平台消费信贷的经济福利影响，并得到四个结论：第一，如果银行无法提供充足的消费信贷，那么电商平台就有激励提供信贷，以支持规模经济并扩大交易量。第二，电商平台提供的消费信贷越多，它们的市场势力就越大，就会带来更多的效率损失。第三，电商平台消费信贷扩充了货币政策的信贷传输渠道。第四，由于消费者存在现时偏见，电商平台相比银行更有可能过度授信。这些结论值得监管机构关注。