Agro-tourism Integration,Factor Mobility and Regional Economic Development
The integration of agriculture and tourism serves as a tangible embodiment and practice of the philosophy that"lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets".On the basis of theoretical analyses and model derivations,utilizing a quasi-natural experiment based on the policy design of"Dem-onstration Counties of Leisure Agriculture and Rural Tourism",this study examines the impact of the in-tegration on economic growth in various counties leveraging panel data from 1778 Chinese counties span-ning from 2008 to 2019,and employing a multi-timepoint difference-in-differences model.It is found that the fusion of agriculture and tourism significantly boosts county-level economic growth.This conclusion holds true even after rigorous robustness tests,such as parallel trend tests and counterfactual tests.Mechanism analysis indicates that the integration of agriculture and tourism amplifies county-level eco-nomic growth primarily by attracting capital inflow,accelerating the transition of labor force from agricul-ture to other sections,and promoting technological advancements.This underscores the transmission ef-fect of factor mobility in the process of county economic growth.Furthermore,from the perspective of re-source endowment,the realization of economic benefits from this integration not only hinges on the intrin-sic tourism-related ecological resources of the counties but also has high requirements for external infra-structures such as transportation.Notably,counties in the eastern regions see more pronounced economic growth effects from this integration.In conclusion,championing the fusion of agriculture and tourism based on local resource strengths,coupled with addressing infrastructural gaps,particularly in transporta-tion,emerges as a vital strategy for spurring county-level economic growth.