Exploring the Mechanisms of Digital Economy’s Impact on Rural Revitalization Efficiency: A Framework of Shared Technologies and Sustainable Concepts

The digital economy, driven by data-enabled innovation, has become a critical engine for advancing agricultural modernization and promoting inclusive and sustainable rural revitalization in China. This study conceptualizes the rural revitalization system as an integrated system comprising five interconnected subsystems. A global parallel Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) model with shared inputs is developed to evaluate the total system and subsystem efficiencies of rural revitalization. In addition, quantification of the digital economy’s development level is achieved through the joint application of the entropy weight method and TOPSIS. Finally, based on a 2013–2022 panel of 31 provincial-level units in China, this paper identifies the impact and underlying mechanisms of the digital economy on the total system and subsystem efficiencies of rural revitalization. The findings reveal that (i) the digital economy significantly enhances rural revitalization efficiency, and this conclusion remains robust after addressing endogeneity and conducting multiple robustness tests. (ii) Heterogeneity analyses indicate that the digital economy contributes more in regions with lower rural revitalization efficiency, medium economic development, larger labor forces, or lower levels of Internet development. Furthermore, although digital economy does not have a significant impact on the subsystem efficiency of social etiquette and civility, its impacts on the remaining subsystem efficiencies are all significant. (iii) The impact of the digital economy on improving rural revitalization efficiency is mediated by technological innovation, and the expansion of the scale of non-agricultural employment enhances the promoting effect of the digital economy on rural revitalization efficiency.