To clarify the impact of digital new quality productive forces on the urban–rural income gap in mountainous counties, this study utilizes a panel data set from 26 mountainous counties in Zhejiang Province from 2011 to 2022. A two-way fixed effects model, a mediation effect model, and a panel threshold model are employed to analyze both the effect and the underlying mechanisms. The results show that: 1) The digital new quality productive forces significantly reduce the urban–rural income gap in mountainous counties, with a more pronounced effect on increasing rural residents’ income; 2) The impact exhibits both regional and temporal heterogeneity: the gap-reducing effect is more significant in ecological development counties and during the later stage of development, while it is not statistically significant in leapfrog development counties and in the early development period; 3) Forestry industry development and employment structure serve as the main mechanism pathways through which digital new quality productive forces influence the urban–rural income gap. Specifically, forestry development primarily promotes rural income, whereas employment structure optimization has a stronger effect on urban income growth; 4) Information infrastructure has a significant threshold effect. When the level of informatization is low, the positive impact of digital new productive forces is limited or even exacerbates the income gap, while at higher levels of informatization, the digital new quality productive forces significantly narrow the urban-rural income gap in mountainous areas. Therefore, it is necessary to promote the integration of digital new quality productive forces with the forestry industry based on local conditions, improve digital infrastructure and employment support mechanisms, enhance the income-generating capacity of underdeveloped regions, and advance coordinated urban–rural development in mountainous counties.
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