Unlocking Urban Economic Resilience: Transmission Mechanisms and Spatial Effects of Cross-Border E-Commerce

External shocks and uncertainty have increased the need for urban economic resilience. As an institutionalized form of digital trade, China’s cross-border e-commerce (CBEC) Comprehensive Pilot Zones may strengthen cities’ adaptive capacity by lowering trade frictions and improving network connectivity. Using the staggered establishment of China’s CBEC Comprehensive Pilot Zones as a quasi-natural experiment, this study examines the causal and spatial effects of CBEC policy on urban economic resilience. Based on a balanced panel of 297 Chinese cities from 2011–2023, we construct a GDP-based counterfactual resilience index and estimate policy impacts with a multi-period difference-in-differences (DID) model, complemented by a spatial Durbin model (SDM). Results show that CBEC pilot zones significantly enhance urban economic resilience, with event-study estimates indicating that the effect emerges after implementation and strengthens over subsequent years. Mechanism tests suggest that the resilience gains operate through increased entrepreneurial vitality, deeper financial development, and higher green innovation output. Spatial estimates further reveal pronounced positive spillovers: policy-induced improvements in one city raise resilience in neighboring cities within the urban network. Heterogeneity analyses indicate stronger effects in large cities and in eastern and central regions, while effects are weaker in western cities. These findings highlight CBEC-oriented digital governance as an effective lever for building resilient urban economies and support cross-city coordination to amplify regional resilience dividends.