New Rural Collective Economy Participation and Household Livelihood Resilience for Sustainable Rural Development: Evidence from Jiangxi Province, China

Household livelihood resilience is an important foundation for sustainable rural development, particularly in rural areas exposed to climate risks, market fluctuations, and demographic pressures. This study examines whether participation in new rural collective economic organizations (NRCEOs) is associated with household livelihood resilience and explores the mechanisms and contextual heterogeneity underlying this association. Using survey data from 837 rural households in Jiangxi Province, China, we construct a multidimensional livelihood resilience index and apply ordinary least squares, propensity score matching, and lasso Regression, together with an exploratory IV-2SLS sensitivity analysis. The results show that participation in NRCEOs is positively associated with household livelihood resilience, and this relationship remains stable across alternative estimation strategies. Mechanism analysis provides evidence consistent with two pathways: land, labor, and capital allocation support the resource-allocation pathway, while production efficiency and agricultural income support the agricultural production pathway; the sales channel estimate remains inconclusive because online sales are rare in the sample and statistical power is limited. Overall, the findings indicate that the relationship between collective economic participation and household livelihood resilience varies across mechanism dimensions and local development contexts.