In order to further understand the impact of the development of the digital economy on the income gap between urban and rural areas, the panel data of 287 prefecture-level cities in China from 2011 to 2022 were selected as samples for quantitative empirical verification. It is found that there is a U-shaped relationship between the development of digital economy and the urban-rural income gap narrowing first and then expanding. Mechanism analysis shows that the digital economy affects the urban-rural income gap by influencing the level of innovation and human capital. In addition, the degree of marketization plays a moderating role, which will strengthen the narrowing effect of the urban-rural income gap in the early stage of the development of the digital economy, and will inhibit the widening of the urban-rural income gap after crossing the inflection point. Further analysis shows that the relationship between the digital economy and the urban-rural income gap is more significant in the western region and the region with a lower degree of industrial structure upgrading.

digital economy  /  urban-rural income disparity  /  U-shaped effect