How short-video e-commerce shapes urban economic integration and its spatial spillovers

The integration of digital and real economies (IDR) poses significant challenges for spatial governance, particularly in ad-dressing uneven development and resource allocation within urban agglomerations. This study examines the role of short-video and live-stream e-commerce (SLE) in enhancing IDR, focusing on its spatial spillover effects across cities. This study uses panel data from 41 cities in the Yangtze River Delta from 2021 to 2023, applying a spatial Durbin model and multiple mediation effect models. Findings suggest that SLE positively affects local IDR, facilitated by mechanisms such as agglomeration of high-tech industries (AGG) and digital innovation, while the effect of new digital infrastructure is limited in the short term. Notably, SLE exhibits a significant spatial spillover effect, gener-ating positive indirect impacts on neighboring cities despite local crowding-out effects. Furthermore, this study re-veals that AGG has a varying impact, with a more pronounced positive effect in regions with lower agglomeration levels and an inhibitory effect in highly agglomerated areas. These findings provide actionable insights for policymakers to design spatially adaptive governance strategies, such as leveraging SLE’s spillover effects while mitigating local crowding-out through cross-city collaboration in infrastructure and innovation policies.