Abstract: New infrastructure has great potential to promote integrated urban-rural development. Based on the panel data of 31 provincial-level administrative regions in China from 2012 to 2021, this paper applies spatial lag modeling to test the mechanism of how new infrastructure drives integrated urban-rural development. The results demonstrate that the new infrastructure has a driving effect on integrated urban-rural development, and there is a significant spatial spillover effect. The three types of new infrastructure, namely information-based infrastructure, integrated infrastructure, and innovation infrastructure, all have a positive effect on integrated urban-rural development. Specifically, the effect of information-based infrastructure relies on the digital economy, the effect of innovation infrastructure relies on industrial structure upgrading, and the effect of integrated infrastructure can be transmitted through both the digital economy and industrial structure upgrading. Therefore, the investment and construction of the three types of new infrastructure should be planned scientifically, considering the digital economy and industrial structure of the region, and the interregional planning of new infrastructure should be strengthened, to give full play to the spatial spillover effect of the new infrastructure, and to promote integrated urban-rural development.

Key words: new infrastructure, integrated urban-rural development, digital economy, industrial structure upgrading