Study On The Impact Of Urbanization On Urban-Rural Income Gap

As the continuous development of the economy and the advancement of urbanization,the income level of urban and rural residents in China has also been markedly improved.However,as the economic growth rapidly and urbanization advance quickly in China,the income gap between urban and rural areas has grown widen.It did not begin to decline until 2009.Fairness is a matter of great concern to the society,and the widening income gap between urban and rural areas will hinder social stability,economic growth,and optimization of industrial structure.Therefore,the issue of income disparity between urban and rural areas has always been a concern of the academic community.So the impact of urbanization on the urban-rural income gap is under discussion in this article.Firstly I review the related theories of urbanization and urban-rural income gap,and study the mechanism of urbanization on the urban-rural income gap.The Shanghai city circle and the Pearl River Delta urban agglomeration are the two largest urban agglomerations in China with the highest economic level.They have important implications for the development path of urbanization in other regions.Therefore,in this article these two regions are used as samples to analyze the urbanization andurban-rural development problems.2000-2016 data from two regions are selected for empirical analysis,including urbanization rate,education level,industrial structure,fiscal expenditure,opening up,and economic level as independent variables,while urban-rural income gap as dependent variable.Finally,it puts forward some policy suggestions such as adopting a reasonable urbanization development model,promoting education fairness,promoting industrial service upgrading,giving full play to the role of government guidance,persisting in opening to the outside world,and adopting a scientific way to promote economic development.Conclusions are as follows:Firstly,the characteristics of urbanization of the two urban clusters are different:The urbanization levels of the two cities are both high and significantly ahead of the national level,which was 57.5% in 2016.The level of urbanization in the urbanized? ? Shanghai city circle was 70.72%,compared with the 80.82% of the Pearl River Delta,the highest urbanization level.It reached the level of a medium-developed country.In addition,the urbanization level in Shenzhen has been reached 100%.Secondly,the characteristics of income gap between urban and rural areas are also different: The differences of the industrial structure in two cities have led to differences in the urban-rural income gap.The PRD urban agglomeration are dominated by manufacturing industries represented by electronic production industry,and the average industrial versus service rate in the region(= tertiary industry output/secondary industry output × 100%)is 111.26%(if it excludes Guangzhou,the result is 95.71%);The Shanghai city circle are dominated by the service industry represented by the Internet industry,and the average industrial versus service rate in the region is 119.10%(if it excludes excluded Shanghai,the result is 107.63%).The different economic development patterns between the two cities cause the different outcome of income gap between urban and rural areas.The income gap between the urban and rural areas in the Pearl River Delta is wider than the urban-rural income gap in the Shanghai city circle,and the volatility is even greater.Thirdly,the empirical results show four major points:(1)The income gapbetween urban and rural areas will grow widen then grow narrowed as the urbanization level rises,the curve likes an inverted letter “U”,which increase first and then decrease.The inflection point of the urbanization rate in the Pearl River Delta will be 80.77% while the Shanghai city circle will be 84.63%.(2)In the process of urbanization,factors such as improvement of education level,change of industrial structure,and opening to the outside world will cause widening of the income gap between urban and rural areas.However,factors such as fiscal expenditure will cause narrowing the urban-rural income gap.The expansion or contraction of the urban-rural income gap will mainly depend on net effect mixed by the employment effects,destructive effect,etc.(3)The Kuznets Curve is not suitable for both two areas.The empirical results show that the curve between economic and the urban-rural income gap shows like a positive “U” shape but not an inverted “U” type predicted by Lewis' s dual structure.We cannot expect that the urban-rural income gap will automatically shrink itself as the economy improves.(4)Comparing Pearl River Delta with the Shanghai city circle,we can find that the development model of the Shanghai circle city is more suitable for narrowing of the income gap between urban and rural areas.It can be used as a reference when leaders choose the urbanization model in other areas to develop the economy.