Research on the impact of e-commerce on county economic resilience -- A quasi-natural experiment based on the policy of "comprehensive demonstration of e-commerce into rural areas"

Against the backdrop of high-quality county economic development and advancing e-commerce initiatives, the mechanism through which e-commerce drives county economic resilience has become a research focus. Current challenges include unbalanced development and inter-provincial disparities in resilience. Using balanced panel data of 265 counties from 2001 to 2021, this study employs the “Comprehensive Demonstration of E-Commerce in Rural Areas” policy as an exogenous shock, applying multi-time DID and mediating effect models. Results show the policy significantly enhances economic resilience, especially within two years of implementation ,the influence coefficient of which rises from 0.724 to 1.379. Industrial scale expansion mediates 2.37% of this effect via agglomeration and innovation. Heterogeneity analysis reveals stronger effects in non-Yangtze River counties and eastern regions. The study provides empirical references for digital-era county development, advocating strengthened e-commerce-industry synergy and location-based differentiated policies to boost resilience.