How Does the Digital Economy Drive County-Level Sustainable Development? A Perspective on the Coordinated Development of Economic and Environmental Resilience

Abstract

The digital economy is a vital engine driving grassroots sustainable development, yet whether and how it promotes the coordinated evolution of economic and environmental resilience at the county level remains to be further empirically tested. Using panel data for 1399 Chinese counties from 2018 to 2023, this study constructs an evaluation system for coordinated dual resilience based on the evolutionary framework of resistance, adaptability, and transformation, and measures digital economy development through word-frequency analysis of county government work reports. The baseline regression results show that the digital economy significantly promotes the coordinated development of county-level economic and environmental resilience, breaking the zero-sum game between grassroots economic growth and ecological protection. Mechanism tests reveal a bidirectional driving pathway of industry and society: the digital economy not only exerts an industrial driving effect by empowering advanced productive forces and increasing the level of industrial agglomeration, but also plays a social reshaping role by enhancing talent retention potential and improving social service effectiveness. Heterogeneity analysis further indicates that this synergistic effect is stronger in southern counties and in counties covered by the Comprehensive Demonstration Program for E-commerce in Rural Areas. By shifting the sustainable development perspective to the micro-level of counties, this study provides practical policy implications for formulating differentiated, targeted digital investment strategies and optimizing the supply of grassroots digital public goods.