scholarly journals How does the urban–rural income gap affect the quality of China’s economic growth?

2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 136-148 ◽  
Author(s):  
Baoping Ren ◽  
Xiaojing Chao
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Industrial Structure ◽  
Empirical Test ◽  
Theoretical Interpretation ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Income Gap ◽  
Rural Income ◽  
Urban Rural ◽  
Growth Quality

Purpose Based on the theoretical definition of the quality of economic growth as well as the availability and reliability of the given data, the purpose of this paper is to build an evaluation system of a regional economic growth quality on three levels: conditions, processes and results. Design/methodology/approach From the perspective of economic quality, this paper offers a theoretical interpretation on how the urban–rural income gap affects the quality of economic growth and takes an empirical test on the sample panel data from 30 provinces and regions through difference GMM and system GMM models. Findings The results show that the excessively large income gap will influence economic growth in terms of the foundation, operation and the outcome, thereby, restricting the quality of economic growth. In addition, investments in human and physical capital and improvements in terms of transport infrastructure, industrial structure and economic openness play an active role in economic growth quality, whereas government expenditure scale, financial development and the deviation of industrial structure have a negative effect. Originality/value There has been a substantial amount of experience and evidence on the research about the issue of China’s income distribution and the quantity of economic growth, whereas there are relatively fewer discussions about the income distribution and the quality of economic growth. This paper, based on what has been mentioned above, tries to give a theoretical interpretation and an empirical test to describe the relationship between urban–rural income gap and the quality of economic growth from the quality point of view.

Rural credit input, labor transfer and urban–rural income gap: evidence from China

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Guohua Yu ◽  
Zheng Lu
Keyword(s):  
Rural Areas ◽  
Industrial Structure ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Rural Credit ◽  
Income Gap ◽  
Rural Income ◽  
Urban Rural ◽  
Labor Transfer ◽  
Theoretical Mechanism ◽  
Agricultural Industries

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to elaborate the theoretical mechanism of rural credit input affecting the urban–rural income gap from the perspective of labor transfer, and use a dynamic panel mediation model to test the transmission mechanism of rural credit input affecting the urban–rural income gap through labor transfer, so as to provide an empirical basis for narrowing the urban–rural income gap in China.Design/methodology/approachThis paper constructs a mechanism analysis framework for rural credit input affecting the urban–rural income gap. From the perspective of resource allocation and labor transfer, the authors expound the transmission path of rural credit input to the urban–rural income gap and analyze the theoretical mechanism of rural credit input that affects the urban–rural income gap through labor transfer. Based on this, this paper uses the dynamic panel mediation model to test the effect relationship between rural credit input, labor transfer and urban–rural income gap in 31 provinces of China from 2009 to 2018.FindingsIn theory, increasing rural credit input can ease the financial constraints on the development of “agriculture, rural areas and farmers” and provide capital accumulation for the development of rural non-agricultural industries. The development of rural non-agricultural industries can provide more jobs for rural surplus labor, thereby increasing the labor rate of return in rural areas, and ultimately conducive to narrowing the urban–rural income gap. Further, increasing rural credit input can improve the development level of rural non-agricultural industries, thereby promoting the transfer of agricultural labor. At the same time, rural credit input based on the intermediary variable of labor transfer has a significant inhibitory effect on the urban–rural income gap.Research limitations/implicationsThis study mainly focuses on the relationship between rural credit input, labor transfer and urban–rural income gap, so it is impossible to use micro-level data to further verify the impact of rural credit input on labor transfer. At the same time, the collection of indicators of rural credit investment in the China Financial Yearbook only started in 2009, which limited the number of samples to a certain extent.Practical implicationsThis paper assumes that the economy is mainly composed of urban and rural economic sectors. Therefore, labor can flow freely between urban and rural areas. However, in the near future, China's rural secondary and tertiary industries may develop rapidly, especially with the in-depth implementation of rural revitalization strategy, it is very important to pay attention to the current situation of rural industrial structure and incorporate the factors such as rural industrial structure into the existing model.Social implicationsThis study attempts to provide a new perspective and inspiration for rural credit input, the optimal allocation of labor force and narrowing the urban–rural income gap under China's rural revitalization strategy.Originality/valueBased on the analysis framework of neoclassical economic theory, this paper uses the constant elasticity of substitution production function to establish an urban–rural two-sector nested model that includes credit supply variables and analyzes the mechanism of rural credit input affecting the urban–rural income gap through labor transfer.

The impact of foreign direct investment on urban-rural income inequality

2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 480-497 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chunlai Chen
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
International Trade ◽  
Income Inequality ◽  
Fixed Effects ◽  
Knowledge Spillovers ◽  
Employment Creation ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Rural Income ◽  
Urban Rural ◽  
The Impact

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyse the impact of foreign direct investment (FDI) on urban-rural income inequality in China. Design/methodology/approach This study uses the provincial-level panel data and employs the fixed-effects instrumental variable regression technique to investigate empirically the impact of FDI on urban-rural income inequality in China. Findings The study finds that while FDI has directly contributed to reducing urban-rural income inequality through employment creation, knowledge spillovers and contribution to economic growth, FDI has also contributed to increasing urban-rural income inequality through international trade. Practical implications The study has some policy implications. First, as the study finds that FDI not only contributes to reducing urban-rural income inequality through employment creation, knowledge spillovers and contribution to economic growth, but also contributes to increasing urban-rural income inequality through international trade, therefore, apart from improving local economic and technological conditions to attract more FDI inflows, China should re-design FDI policies by shifting away from encouraging export-oriented FDI to encouraging FDI flows into the industries and sectors in line with China’s overall economic structural adjustments and industrial upgrading. Second, policies should focus on increasing investment in infrastructure development and in public education, which not only can reduce urban-rural income inequality but also can attract more FDI inflows. And finally policies should be designed to accelerate urbanisation development by focusing on urban-rural integrated development, household registration system reform and proper settlement of rural migrants in urban areas, thus reducing urban-rural income inequality. Originality/value The paper makes two major contributions to the literature. First, the paper adopts the fixed-effects instrumental variable regression technique to deal with the endogeneity issues in estimating the impact of FDI on urban-rural income inequality, producing more consistent estimates. Second, the paper investigates not only the direct impact of FDI on urban-rural income inequality through the effects of employment creation, knowledge spillovers and contribution to economic growth, but also the indirect impact of FDI on urban-rural income inequality through its activities in international trade, adding new empirical evidence to the sparse literature on the impact of FDI on income inequality in China.

Would Urban–Rural Income Gap Affect Carbon Dioxide Emissions? Empirical Research Based on the Extended IPAT Model

2016 ◽  
Vol 04 (02) ◽  
pp. 1650014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lei HU
Keyword(s):  
Carbon Dioxide ◽  
Energy Efficiency ◽  
Energy Conservation ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Carbon Dioxide Emissions ◽  
Emission Reduction ◽  
Empirical Test ◽  
Income Gap ◽  
Rural Income ◽  
Urban Rural

At present, there’s no agreement on how income gap affects carbon dioxide emissions. In this study, the author takes an empirical test of the relationship between income gap and carbon dioxide emissions based on the extended IPAT model, using China’s provincial panel data of from 2000 to 2012. The conclusion supports Boyce’s point of view that excessive income gap between urban and rural areas leads to environmental degradation. Meanwhile, the study introduces the cross terms of urban–rural income gap ratio and energy efficiency, and finds that excessive income gap would be an obstacle for China to achieve energy conservation and emission reduction by improving energy efficiency. Therefore, while promoting actions to climate change, energy conservation and emission reduction, governments should also narrow urban–rural income gap besides relying on the restrictions of relevant laws and regulations.

scholarly journals The Effect of Agricultural Environmental Total Factor Productivity on Urban-Rural Income Gap: Integrated View from China

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (8) ◽  
pp. 3327
Author(s):  
Qiang Li ◽  
Xiaohang Wu ◽  
Yi Zhang ◽  
Yafei Wang
Keyword(s):  
Total Factor Productivity ◽  
Industrial Structure ◽  
Estimation Method ◽  
Market Demand ◽  
Factor Productivity ◽  
Income Gap ◽  
Rural Income ◽  
Urban Rural ◽  
Sar Model ◽  
Spatial Autoregressive

Agricultural total factor productivity (TFP) provides a measure of the efficiency of agricultural production, allowing for comparisons across time, countries and regions. Agricultural environmental total factor productivity not only considers the desired output, but also takes resource efficiency and environment friendliness into account. Using the Data Envelopment Analysis with slack-based measure (DEA-SBM) super-efficiency model, this research measures the agricultural environmental total factor productivity (ETFP) of 30 provincial regions in China. Based on the measurements, the spatial autoregressive (SAR) model and estimation method were used to empirically test the effects on the agricultural ETFP for the urban-rural income gap. The results indicated that from 2001 to 2017, agricultural ETFP in China grew at an average annual rate of 4.3%, and the technological progress and technical efficiency after decomposition increased by 3.6% and 5.9% respectively. The findings indicated that the agricultural ETFP growth has not only failed in narrowing urban-rural income gap, but further widened it. Changes in industrial structure, upgrades in market demand and increases in human capital have instigated the ever alarming urban-rural income gap. Indeed, the economic acceleration has a restraining effect on the urban-rural income gap.

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