How Does E-Commerce Enhance County Economic Vitality? A Capital Formation Perspective

The development of rural e-commerce has significant value for regional economic development in developing countries. Its sustainable development depends on whether e-commerce can promote endogenous capital accumulation at the county level. This study uses panel data from 649 Chinese counties from 2013 to 2022, together with nighttime light remote-sensing data, to examine how variation in e-commerce development intensity affects county-level economic vitality from the perspective of capital formation. The results show that e-commerce development intensity is associated with stronger county-level economic vitality. The mediation analysis provides differentiated evidence for the capital formation mechanism: fixed asset investment mainly exhibits a delayed indirect effect, whereas loan balances and firm stock operate mainly through contemporaneous channels. However, the county-level economic effect of e-commerce shows regional heterogeneity. Based on the above findings, this paper proposes policy recommendations for the further development of e-commerce, as the economic benefits of e-commerce are significant in relatively developed counties in eastern China but insignificant in non-eastern regions.