Panel analysis reveals positive associations between regional port synergy and rural income in border counties, highlighting cross-tier collaboration.
Key Points
To evaluate how the transition of land-border ports from transit corridors to regional hubs relates to rural resident income gains across border counties.
Analyzed panel data from seven counties along the China–Vietnam border in Guangxi spanning 2008 to 2023, supplemented by field research.
Applied two-way fixed-effects models, control-function approaches, mediation analysis, and port-size heterogeneity checks using regional synergy (Region_BPEDI) and county response (Dev_BPEDI) indices.
Both regional synergy and county response are positively associated with log rural per-capita disposable income, with the estimated association for Region_BPEDI being approximately 2.5 times that of Dev_BPEDI per one standard deviation.
Industrial-structure upgrading exhibited the strongest mediating effect between port transformation and income gains, while infrastructure connectivity and financial development required greater cross-tier coordination.
Port-size heterogeneity analysis revealed that large ports leverage regional synergy more effectively, whereas small and medium ports depend primarily on niche-based differentiation.