Zhang Yongqiang and Zhang Xian: Research on the Mechanism of Rural E-commerce Empowering County Inclusive Growth

Zhang Yongqiang Zhang Xian

college of Economics and Management, Northeast Agricultural University

abstract

inclusive growth is the core path to promote the coordinated development of high-quality economic development and common prosperity. As the basic unit of the national economy and the key unit connecting urban and rural areas, the level of inclusive growth in the county is directly related to the coordinated development of the region and the shared development results of the whole people. Taking 90 counties in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Guangdong provinces from 2014 to 2022 as samples, this paper constructs two-way fixed effect model, intermediary effect model, threshold model and spatial econometric model to decompose the direct impact, indirect impact and possible threshold effect and spatial spillover effect of inclusive growth in rural e-commerce enabling counties. The research shows that rural e-commerce has a significant and stable role in promoting the inclusive growth of the county. Heterogeneity analysis shows that its empowerment effect is different in counties with different industry-led, infrastructure and population density, highlighting that its effect depends on specific county basic conditions. Mechanism analysis confirms that rural e-commerce indirectly empowers county inclusive growth by optimizing industrial structure and promoting consumption expansion. The threshold effect shows that the empowerment effect of rural e-commerce is nonlinear with the change of facility agriculture scale and labor force scale, and there is a clear threshold effect. The spatial econometric results show that there is a significant spatial spillover effect on the impact of rural e-commerce, and the spillover effect is significantly stronger than the direct effect, indicating that the development of rural e-commerce has a strong regional synergy. Therefore, we should further strengthen the support of rural e-commerce infrastructure and consolidate the foundation for inclusive growth. According to the heterogeneous characteristics of counties, implement classified and accurate policies; Focus on dual-path empowerment to deepen the integration of e-commerce and industrial consumption; Pay attention to threshold constraints and spatial linkage effects, and promote coordinated development among counties, so as to better release the enabling potential of rural e-commerce for inclusive growth in counties.

Provenance: Journal of Northeast Agricultural University (Social Science Edition), 2026, Volume 24, No. 2 (Total No. 132), pp. 61-75.