Abstract:
High-quality development of agricultural insurance is a crucial pillar for enhancing agricultural risk protection capabilities and supporting the comprehensive revitalization of rural areas. The development of digital infrastructure provides new technological pathways for optimizing agricultural insurance service models and improving risk management efficiency. This paper treats the Broadband China strategy as a quasi-natural experiment. Using panel data from 280 prefecture-level cities in China from 2008 to 2021, it employs a multi-period difference-in-differences model to examine the impact of digital infrastructure on the high-quality development of agricultural insurance and its underlying mechanisms. The study finds that: 1) Digital infrastructure development significantly promotes the high-quality development of agricultural insurance, a conclusion that holds even after a series of robustness tests and endogeneity treatments; 2) Mechanism analysis indicates that digital infrastructure can further enhance the high-quality development of agricultural insurance by promoting agricultural technological innovation; 3) Local fiscal pressures exert a significant negative moderating effect on the role of digital infrastructure in promoting the high-quality development of agricultural insurance; higher fiscal pressures weaken the effect of digital empowerment on agricultural insurance; 4) Heterogeneity analysis reveals that the promotional effect of digital infrastructure is more pronounced in major grain-consuming regions, areas with high natural risks, and the eastern regions. Based on these findings, this paper offers policy recommendations in areas such as strengthening digital infrastructure development, promoting agricultural technological innovation, optimizing the allocation of fiscal resources, and implementing differentiated advancement strategies.