The Impact of the Digital Economy on Urban Economic Resilience: Evidence from the Yangtze River Delta Region

Given the increasing uncertainty in the global economy, enhancing urban economic resilience is now paramount to advancing coordinated regional development. As a key force reshaping factor allocation and economic structures, the digital economy’s role in empowering urban economic resilience holds significant theoretical and practical value, especially for closely linked riverine urban agglomeration. Using 2010–2022 panel data of 41 Yangtze River Delta cities, this paper constructs a multidimensional economic resilience evaluation system. Employing two-way fixed effects, instrumental variables, and Spatial Durbin Model, it systematically examines the impact mechanism, heterogeneity, and spatial spillover of the digital economy on urban economic resilience. The findings indicate the following: (1) The digital economy significantly enhances urban economic resilience. (2) Its empowering effect exhibits notable regional disparities, with metropolitan areas and core cities benefiting more substantially. (3) The digital economy strengthens surrounding cities through spatial spillovers, yet some peripheral cities remain trapped in “low–low” agglomeration. This paper offers important insights for global riverine urban agglomerations: promoting the digital economy should prioritize cross-regional governance, enhancing core cities’ leading role, and boosting targeted investment in digital infrastructure and innovation in peripheral areas. This approach is essential for narrowing regional differences and improving overall resilience and sustainability.