Analyzing the Efficiency and Optimization Strategies of Rural-Urban Integration Driven by Digital Economy Based on Spatial Econometric Models

Abstract

With the wide application of big data, cloud computing, artificial intelligence and other technologies in the economy and society, the digital economy has become an important engine to lead profound social change and promote high-quality economic development. This paper makes a deep inquiry into the efficiency of urban-rural integration driven by digital economy, measures the efficiency of China's digital economy and urban-rural integration through the entropy method, and analyzes the evolution of the two by using the kernel density estimation method. On this basis, a spatial econometric model was constructed to analyze the effect of digital economy on urban-rural integration efficiency. The study shows that during the period of 2015-2024, the digital economy development index of China as a whole and each province has increased, showing a trend of “from high to low” from east to west. The urban-rural integration efficiency as a whole shows an upward trend, with the eastern region far exceeding the central and western regions, and from the source of differences, inter-group differences are the main source of variability in urban-rural integration efficiency. In addition, the development of digital economy can narrow the gap between urban-rural integration efficiency in local and neighboring provinces, and there is regional heterogeneity in this effect. This paper lays a theoretical foundation for the design of digital economy-driven urban-rural integration efficiency optimization strategies.