Does the digital economy promote sustainable integrated urban-rural development? Evidence from China
Abstract
Using panel data from 30 Chinese provinces from 2013–2022, this study examines the role of the digital economy in advancing Urban-Rural Integration (URI). Our results demonstrate that the digital economy has a significant effect on URI, even after accounting for potential endogeneity and conducting robustness tests. Mediation analysis finds that industrial upgrading and marketization serve as key channels through which the digital economy boosts integration. Moderation analysis reveals that fiscal support for agriculture strengthens the positive impact, while rising urbanization tends to weaken it. The threshold analysis indicates that the impact of the digital economy is nonlinear. It promotes integration at early and intermediate stages, but its marginal effect decreases once development surpasses a threshold value. Further analysis shows that the digital economy most strongly influences social integration, followed by economic, ecological, and spatial integration. Additionally, the positive role of digital development is more evident in China’s central and western regions than in the east. These results offer policy insights on leveraging digital transformation to foster more equitable and sustainable urban-rural development. First published online 28 September 2026