Abstract: Based on the data from the China Labor-force Dynamic Survey (CLDS) in 2014 and 2016, this study first employed the stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) model to measure the agricultural total factor productivity of rural households, and then systematically examined the impact of agricultural mechanization on the income gap of rural households in China and its underlying mechanism by integrating recentered influence function (RIF) regressions with a mediation effect model. The results indicated that agricultural mechanization significantly narrowed the rural household income gap, and the effect of full mechanization was stronger than that of semi-mechanization. Agricultural mechanization not only had a direct effect but also generated a significant indirect effect by enhancing agricultural total factor productivity, demonstrating a partial mediation effect. This effect exhibited significant heterogeneity; it was more pronounced among households receiving agricultural subsidies but weaker among those without subsidies, and it was prominent in plain areas but weaker in hilly or mountainous areas.Based on the findings, this study recommended improving the socialized service system for agricultural machinery, enhancing the targeting precision of subsidy policies, and promoting the coordinated development of “adapting machinery to local conditions and modifying land for machinery use” to elevate the level of mechanization in mountainous areas, narrow the rural household income gap, and contribute to the achievement of common prosperity.;

Key words: agricultural mechanization, rural household income gap, agricultural total factor productivity, impact mechanism, policy implications