数字乡村发展与县域共同富裕:来自中国湖北省的证据(原标题:Digital Rural Development and County-Level Common Prosperity: Evidence from Hubei Province, China)

1. Introduction

The 2026 No. 1 Central Document of China emphasizes the need to foster county-level industries that increase rural incomes, advance high-quality digital rural development, improve rural digital infrastructure, and enhance public service provision. These policy priorities indicate that digital rural development has become an important strategic initiative for advancing agricultural and rural modernization and promoting urban–rural integration, thereby providing a solid institutional foundation for achieving common prosperity at the county level [1]. With the rapid development of new-generation digital technologies, such as big data, artificial intelligence (AI), and the Internet of Things (IoT), digital technologies have been increasingly integrated into rural production, public service provision, and grassroots governance, reshaping production systems, governance models, and resource allocation in rural areas [2]. Previous studies have shown that digital rural development contributes to more efficient factor allocation, improved public service delivery, and higher rural household incomes, making it an increasingly important pathway for narrowing the urban–rural development gap and promoting common prosperity [3]. Hubei Province, located in central China, lies at the intersection of several major national development strategies, including the Yangtze River Economic Belt, the Rise of Central China Strategy, and the Middle Reaches of the Yangtze River Urban Agglomeration. It is also one of China’s key provinces for implementing digital rural development policies. Owing to its diverse geographical conditions—including plains, hills, and mountainous areas—counties within Hubei exhibit substantial differences in economic development, industrial structure, resource endowments, and levels of digital rural development. These characteristics make Hubei a representative case for examining county-level digital rural development in China. In recent years, Hubei has implemented a series of policies, such as the Three-Year Action Plan for Building a Strong Digital Economy Province (2022–2024), to promote digital rural development and strengthen county-level economic development. Although these initiatives have generated positive outcomes, challenges such as insufficient industrial integration and unequal public service provision continue to constrain high-quality county development and the realization of common prosperity. Therefore, Hubei provides an appropriate empirical setting for examining the effects and underlying mechanisms through which digital rural development promotes county-level common prosperity.

Against the backdrop of growing scholarly attention to digital rural development and common prosperity, it is necessary to revisit the theoretical foundations of common prosperity. Early classical theories suggest that income inequality follows an inverted-U trajectory during economic development, thereby providing an important theoretical foundation for subsequent studies on common prosperity [4]. Building on this perspective, subsequent empirical research has confirmed a significant nonlinear relationship between income inequality and economic growth, accompanied by pronounced regional heterogeneity [5,6]. As the theoretical framework has evolved, increasing attention has been paid to the concept of inclusive growth, which emphasizes that economic development should enable all members of society to participate in and benefit from the development process [7]. Meanwhile, rapid advances in digital technologies have created new opportunities for promoting common prosperity. Existing studies indicate that digital technologies can stimulate innovation in agricultural production, improve industrial efficiency [8], reshape agricultural production, circulation, and consumption through information and communication technologies [9], and optimize rural resource allocation through digital infrastructure development [10]. Building on these theoretical foundations, a growing body of literature has examined the role of digital rural development in promoting common prosperity from both macro-and micro-level perspectives. Accumulating evidence suggests that the digital economy promotes common prosperity through optimized resource allocation, industrial upgrading, enhanced public service provision, and significant cross-county spatial spillover effects [11]. At the macro level, digital rural development has been found to strengthen the rural collective economy [12], promote high-quality agricultural development and rural modernization [13], facilitate the implementation of rural revitalization strategies [14], enhance urban–rural integration [15], narrow the urban–rural income gap [16], reduce rural income inequality by fostering rural e-commerce, expand farmers’ income-generating opportunities [17], and optimize regional economic structures, thereby creating favorable conditions for achieving common prosperity. At the micro level, digital technologies and digital services—including big data, artificial intelligence, and information and communication technologies—can expand farmers’ income-generating opportunities [18], stimulate rural consumption [19], improve digital literacy and financial market participation [20], and enhance endogenous regional development. Furthermore, policy evaluations indicate that initiatives such as the National Digital Rural Pilot Program [21], the Smart City Pilot Program [22], and the Comprehensive Demonstration Program for Rural E-commerce [23] have significantly promoted regional common prosperity. Collectively, these studies provide a solid theoretical and empirical basis for investigating the relationship between digital rural development and county-level common prosperity.

Despite these important advances, several research gaps remain. First, most previous studies have focused on the macroeconomic effects of digital technologies or examined only a single dimension of rural revitalization, while relatively little attention has been paid to the mechanisms through which digital rural development promotes county-level common prosperity within an integrated analytical framework. Second, most empirical studies rely on provincial- or prefecture-level data, making it difficult to identify intra-provincial heterogeneity and the underlying mechanisms operating at the county level. As the basic governance unit for implementing digital rural development and common prosperity strategies, counties also represent the key spatial scale for integrating urban and rural development. Compared with provincial-level studies, county-level analysis is better suited to capturing regional heterogeneity and identifying localized transmission mechanisms that are often obscured in more aggregated analyses. Moreover, this county-level analytical perspective offers new empirical evidence on the localized effects and underlying transmission mechanisms of digital rural development, thereby complementing the findings of existing provincial-level studies and offering more targeted and practical policy implications for Hubei Province and other regions with similar development characteristics.

Against this background, this study employs county-level panel data from Hubei Province to examine the effects of digital rural development on county-level common prosperity and to explore the underlying mechanisms, with particular attention to the moderating role of industrial agglomeration. Accordingly, this study makes two principal contributions to the existing literature. First, it develops an integrated analytical framework linking digital rural development with county-level common prosperity from a county-level perspective, thereby enriching the theoretical understanding of how digital rural development contributes to common prosperity. Second, by exploiting the substantial heterogeneity across counties in Hubei Province, this study identifies the heterogeneous effects and transmission mechanisms of digital rural development and offers targeted and practical policy implications for Hubei Province and other regions with similar development characteristics seeking to promote county-level common prosperity through digital rural development.

2. Theoretical Analysis and Research Hypotheses

2.1. The Impact of Digital Rural Development on County-Level Common Prosperity

County-level common prosperity is characterized by the coordinated advancement of high-quality economic development and sustained improvements in residents’ well-being [24]. As an integrated development strategy, digital rural development encompasses digital infrastructure, digital industries development, digital public services, and digital inclusion mechanisms within a unified development framework [25,26]. By improving factor allocation efficiency, facilitating industrial transformation, enhancing the accessibility of public services, and strengthening inclusive institutional arrangements, digital rural development creates favorable conditions for simultaneously promoting economic efficiency and developmental equity. Collectively, these mutually reinforcing mechanisms establish a solid foundation for achieving county-level common prosperity. First, digital infrastructure serves as the foundational pillar of digital rural development. Continuous improvements in broadband networks, communication facilities, and digital platforms help bridge the urban–rural digital divide by reducing information asymmetry and transaction costs while facilitating the efficient flow of capital, technology, labor, and data across regions. As rural areas gain greater access to external markets and high-quality production factors, the efficiency of resource allocation substantially improves, thereby strengthening the material foundation for county-level common prosperity [27]. Second, digital rural development promotes industrial transformation and upgrading by accelerating the integration of digital technologies into traditional agriculture and rural industries. Emerging business models, including rural e-commerce, smart agriculture, and digital rural tourism, diversify employment opportunities, expand household income sources, and enhance industrial resilience. These developments not only optimize county-level industrial structures but also stimulate endogenous economic growth, thereby providing sustained momentum for county-level common prosperity [28]. Third, digital public services improve both the accessibility and quality of essential public services through digital technologies such as online education, telemedicine, and digital cultural platforms. Moreover, digital technologies empower farmers by enhancing agricultural productivity, strengthening digital participation, and expanding income-generating opportunities. These improvements not only enhance farmers’ productive capacity and digital inclusion but also narrow disparities in public service provision between urban and rural areas, facilitate human capital accumulation, and improve residents’ quality of life [29]. Consequently, digital rural development promotes more equitable sharing of development outcomes, enhances social welfare and inclusive development, and ultimately advances county-level common prosperity [30]. Finally, digital inclusion mechanisms reinforce the equitable distribution of development benefits through policy support and institutional innovation. Instruments such as digital financial inclusion, digital governance, and targeted digital assistance improve financial accessibility, optimize the allocation of development resources, and expand development opportunities for disadvantaged groups and less-developed counties. These inclusive institutional arrangements not only reduce regional disparities and strengthen social equity but also ensure that the economic gains generated by digital rural development are shared more broadly, thereby providing long-term institutional support for county-level common prosperity.

Taken together, these complementary mechanisms suggest that digital rural development promotes county-level common prosperity through multiple and mutually reinforcing pathways involving more efficient resource allocation, industrial upgrading, human capital accumulation, and inclusive institutional development. The interaction of these pathways not only enhances the quality and sustainability of county-level economic growth but also facilitates a more equitable distribution of development opportunities and welfare gains across counties. Accordingly, the following hypothesis is advanced:

H1.

Digital rural development exerts a significantly positive effect on county-level common prosperity.

2.2. The Mediating Effect of Financing Constraint Alleviation

Financing constraints constitute a major obstacle to county-level economic development and the realization of common prosperity, particularly in rural areas characterized by underdeveloped financial markets and severe information asymmetry. As a systematic development strategy, digital rural development alleviates financing constraints by improving digital infrastructure, optimizing digital financial services, and expanding digital application scenarios. These complementary mechanisms enhance financial accessibility, reduce financing frictions, and improve the efficiency of financial resource allocation, thereby creating favorable conditions for county-level common prosperity. First, from the perspective of digital infrastructure, digital rural development promotes the deployment and upgrading of broadband networks, mobile communication systems, and the Internet of Things (IoT). These improvements strengthen rural connectivity and data transmission capacity, lowering the physical and informational costs of financial service provision in geographically dispersed areas. Consequently, financial institutions can expand service coverage more efficiently, while rural households, agricultural enterprises, and other county-level economic entities gain easier access to credit and financial resources, effectively alleviating financing constraints [31,32]. Second, from the perspective of digital financial services, digital technologies reshape the rural financial ecosystem by integrating multidimensional information on agricultural production, business operations, and household consumption. The application of big data, cloud computing, and intelligent risk assessment enhances the accuracy of credit evaluation, enabling financial institutions to provide more targeted financial products while reducing transaction costs and information asymmetry. As financing constraints are gradually relaxed, county-level economic actors are better able to undertake productive investment, entrepreneurial activities, and income-generating opportunities, thereby fostering more inclusive economic development [33]. Third, from the perspective of digital applications, digital rural development enhances financial literacy and expands the use of digital financial services. Digital skills training and the widespread adoption of digital financial tools improve the financing capability of rural households and small and medium-sized enterprises. Meanwhile, emerging industries such as rural e-commerce, smart agriculture, and digital rural tourism generate diversified financing demand, encouraging financial innovations including supply chain finance, order financing, and agricultural product pledge loans. These scenario-driven financial services strengthen the integration of digital technologies, rural industries, and financial resources, improve capital allocation efficiency, and further alleviate financing constraints, providing sustained momentum for county-level common prosperity [34,35].

Taken together, digital rural development alleviates financing constraints through the synergistic effects of digital infrastructure, digital financial services, and digital application scenarios. By improving financial accessibility, reducing financing frictions, mitigating information asymmetry, and enhancing the efficiency of financial resource allocation, these mechanisms stimulate productive investment, entrepreneurship, and income growth, thereby providing an important transmission pathway through which digital rural development promotes county-level common prosperity. Accordingly, the following hypothesis is proposed:

H2.

Digital rural development effectively alleviates financing constraints, thereby promoting improvements in county-level common prosperity.

2.3. The Moderating Effect of Industrial Agglomeration

Existing studies have documented that industrial upgrading, economic agglomeration, and spatial spillover effects significantly influence rural revitalization and common prosperity, suggesting that industrial agglomeration (IA) constitutes an important external condition influencing the effectiveness of digital rural development [36,37]. By improving resource allocation efficiency, production capacity, and development resilience, industrial development and technological progress lay an essential foundation for achieving common prosperity. In this context, IA serves as an important boundary condition that shapes t