How the Rural Digital Economy Drives Rural Industrial Revitalization—Case Study of China’s 30 Provinces

The Chinese government is implementing a rural revitalization strategy and speeding up rural modernization. The rapid development of the rural digital economy has become a new driving force for the revitalization of rural industries. By analyzing how rural industrial revitalization is driven by the rural digital economy, this study constructs a rural digital economy from the three dimensions of optimal allocation of rural resource elements, the effective connection of urban–rural markets, and the integrated development of rural industries. The entropy value method was used to assess the comprehensive level of development of the rural digital economy and industrial revitalization. Based on the agricultural and rural development data of 30 provinces in China from 2014 to 2019, we construct a dual fixed effect model to empirically analyze how the rural digital economy drives rural industrial revitalization. The results show that, first, the rural digital economy promotes the revitalization of rural industries through the following main approaches: optimal allocation and utilization of rural resources, effective connection of urban–rural markets, and industrial integration development. Second, using the benchmark regression test, it can be concluded that if the development level of the rural digital economy is increased by 1 percent, the development of rural industrial revitalization will increase by 0.066 percent, indicating that the development of the rural digital economy can significantly drive the revitalization of rural industries. Third, the driving effect of the rural digital economy on the revitalization of rural industries is heterogeneous in different regions and industrial structures. The effect of the rural digital economy on the revitalization of rural industries in the western region, the region with a high proportion of the output value of the primary industry, is higher than in the east and central regions, which have a low proportion of the output value of the primary industry.