Abstract:
Enhancing agricultural ecological efficiency through the digital economy is a key pathway to advance new quality productivity in agriculture. Based on panel data from 30 provinces in China (excluding Xizang, Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan) from 2010 to 2022, this study employs a dynamic panel model and mediation effect analysis to empirically examine the impact of the digital economy on agricultural ecological efficiency and its underlying mechanisms. The results show that the digital economy exerts a significant positive effect on agricultural ecological efficiency, a finding that is confirmed through multiple robustness checks. Moreover, land scale management efficiency and land intensive management efficiency play significant positive mediating roles in this relationship, indicating that improvements in these two dimensions of land management contribute to the positive impact of the digital economy on agricultural ecological performance. The heterogeneity analysis further reveals that the digital economy has a stronger effect on agricultural ecological efficiency in the central and western regions compared to the eastern regions. Based on these findings, it is recommended that the government accelerate the development of the digital economy, enhance both land scale and intensive management efficiency, and increase support for digital economy development in the northeast and central-western regions to promote overall improvements in agricultural ecological efficiency.