Abstract: In the process of Chinese-style modernization, enhancing regional economic resilience is not only a thrust for local economic development,but also an important guarantee for the high-quality development of industries across the board. Guangxi, as a frontier economically underdeveloped region, needs more to enhance the overall level of economic resilience of the whole region with the help of digitalized economy. Based on the resource base view and the adaptive resilience perspective, the article divides the county economic resilience into resistance resilience and adaptive regulation, utilizes the panel data of 66 counties in Guangxi from 2015 to 2020, and studies the impact of the digital economy on the economic resilience of the counties in Guangxi through the construction of the benchmark effect model and the intermediary effect model empirical test. The study shows that the digital economy has a significant positive effect on the economic resilience of Guangxi counties, and its effect is characterized by the heterogeneity of “central counties > peripheral counties” and “large counties > small counties”, which is still valid after the robustness test and endogeneity test. This conclusion still holds after the robustness test and endogeneity test. In the mediation effect analysis, digital economy contributes to the economic resilience of Guangxi counties by narrowing the gap between urban and rural areas and effectively expanding the market size.In view of this, the government should increase the investment in digital economy in economically backward counties in Guangxi, prioritize the digital development of rural and urban areas in all counties in Guangxi, and combine the characteristics of each county and township area with local conditions and scientific policies. At the same time, it should strengthen the economic links between large counties and small counties to realize the sharing of resources and the complementarity of advantages with large counties, and jointly enhance the resilience of Guangxi’s county economy.

Key words: digital economy; county economy; economic resilience

Reprinted from Guangxi Economic Journal, 2024,42(04):34-47.