How Does Digital Economy Affect Rural Revitalization? The Mediating Effect of Industrial Upgrading

Abstract

Since the reform and opening up in 1978, China’s economy has grown significantly, but rural development still lags. China has implemented a rural revitalization strategy to reduce the gap between urban and rural areas. Meanwhile, the digital economy has gradually become a new economic growth engine for China. With the digitalization of rural industries, the digital economy gradually integrated into rural development and revitalization. However, how the digital economy impacts rural revitalization remains unclear. Based on the entropy method, previous studies measured rural revitalization levels from the perspectives of economy, civilization, and ecological environment. In this paper, using panel data from 11 prefecture-level cities in Zhejiang Province from 2011 to 2019, we use the entropy method to quantify the development level of the digital economy, industrial upgrading, and rural revitalization. Then, we investigate the relationship among them using fixed effect regression. The empirical results show that the digital economy obviously promotes rural revitalization. The mediation effect test shows that industrial upgrading plays a mediating mechanism between the digital economy and rural revitalization. In addition, heterogeneity analysis reveals that the promotion effect of the digital economy on rural development in southwestern Zhejiang is stronger than that of northeastern Zhejiang. The results imply that government should strengthen digital infrastructure construction in rural areas to promote rural revitalization. Moreover, rural areas with different economic development levels should implement a differentiated rural revitalization strategy.

Enhancing Rural Revitalization in China through Digital Economic Transformation and Green Entrepreneurship

“…Green entrepreneurship plays a crucial role in facilitating the transition to sustainable solutions [46]. The results are corroborated by the research conducted by Cen et al [70], which investigated the influence of Industry 4.0 technologies on the capacity of industrial upgrading to enhance rural revitalization.…”

Does Digital Inclusive Finance Help County Level Governance in the Five Provinces of Northwest China, from the Perspective of Economic Resilience?

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Coupling and Coordinated Development of Digital Economy and Rural Revitalisation and Analysis of Influencing Factors

“…The first direction is research on the coupling and coordination relationship between rural revitalisation and digital economy. For example, Tao Cen et al, based on their research on the coupling of the development of the digital economy and rural revitalisation in 11 cities in Zhejiang Province, prove that the digital economy does indeed promote rural revitalisation and that performing industrial upgrades plays an important mediating role [1]. Meng Lingguo and Chen Wei (2022) conducted a study based on the coupling and coordinated development of rural finance and rural revitalisation in the Guangdong Province from 2016 to 2020; the results found that financial development has a significant positive spatial spillover effect on rural revitalisation.…”