Research On The Impact Of Rural Human Settlements Quality On Urban-Rural Income Gap In The Western Region

The report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China clearly pointed out that we must firmly take the road of civilized development with production development,prosperous life,and good ecology,and achieve significant improvement in urban and rural human settlements in the next five years.Improving rural human settlements is an important way to narrow the urban-rural gap,and a powerful support to consolidate the achievements of poverty alleviation and promote rural revitalization in succession.The improvement of rural human settlements not only significantly enhances the production and living environment of rural residents,but also shapes the pattern of rural economic development,profoundly changes the urban-rural relationship,and will inevitably have a profound impact on the urban-rural income gap.The western region is an underdeveloped region in China,which is a key and difficult area to solidly promote common prosperity.It is also an ecologically fragile area and an area inhabited by ethnic minorities.The impact of its rural human settlements on the urban-rural income gap is unique and complex.It is of great theoretical significance and practical value to reveal the impact of rural human settlements on urban-rural income gap and its mechanism,in order to clarify the "common wealth" effect of the improvement of rural human settlements in the western region,and to narrow the urban-rural income gap in the process of improving rural human settlements.The research mainly focuses on the following four aspects: The first is the theoretical research on the impact of rural human settlements on the urban-rural income gap.Firstly,a review of domestic and foreign research results related to the theme was conducted,defining the connotation of rural human settlements and urban-rural income gap;Secondly,based on the theory of new structural environment operation,the theory of spatial justice,the theory of industrial structure upgrading and the theory of health human capital,this paper analyzes the theoretical mechanism that the quality of rural human settlements affects the urban-rural income gap.The second is the evaluation of the current situation of rural human settlements and urban-rural income gap in the western region.On the one hand,a comprehensive indicator system for evaluating the quality of rural human settlements is constructed,which is measured using the entropy weight method.Based on the measurement results,the current characteristics of rural human settlements in the western region is described and analyzed from the four major economic regions in China and the provincial level in the western region;On the other hand,the Theil index and urban-rural income ratio methods are used to measure the urban-rural income gap.Based on the measurement results,the current situation of urbanrural income gap in the western region is analyzed at the regional and provincial levels.The third is an empirical analysis of the impact of rural human settlements quality on urbanrural income gap in the western region.Based on the above measurement results,a panel data of 11 provinces(municipalities directly under the Central Government and autonomous regions)in the western region from 2006 to 2020 is selected to build a panel fixed-effects model to explore the impact of rural human settlements quality on urban-rural income gap in the western region.The fourth is to propose measures to alleviate the urban-rural income gap in the process of improving rural human settlements in the western region.The research finds that:(1)The quality level of rural human settlements in the western region generally showed a rising trend from 2006 to 2020,but the overall level is not high.There are also differences in the score levels and development trends of each dimension,and in general,public services and health environment score higher,while infrastructure,living conditions and natural ecological environment score lower.The quality level of rural human settlements also varies widely among provinces in terms of the level of improvement and quality level.(2)The urban-rural income gap in the western region has generally shown a downward trend from 2006 to 2020.The urban-rural income gap in various provinces is narrowing,but the narrowing range is different,with Chongqing and Guizhou having the largest reduction in the urban-rural income ratio.(3)The quality of rural human settlements in the western region has a significant positive impact on narrowing the urban-rural income gap.Regression analysis found that the estimated coefficient of rural human settlements quality is negative at the 1% significance level,and this conclusion has passed a series of robustness tests.This impact effect shows heterogeneity across provinces in the western region,with the positive effect of rural human settlements improvement in narrowing the urban-rural income gap being significant in the southwest and insignificant in the northwest.(4)The improvement of rural human settlements in the western region can promote the upgrading of rural industrial structure and improve the health of rural residents,thus narrowing the urban-rural income gap.Based on the above conclusions,the following policy suggestions are proposed:(1)Highlight the key points and steadily improve the rural human settlements.(2)Determine the standard of rural human settlements improvement according to local conditions.(3)Strengthen the optimization and upgrading of rural industrial structure,and give full play to the positive contribution of narrowing the urban-rural income gap.(4)Improve the health condition of rural residents from multiple channels in order to give full play to the role of a channel to narrow the urban-rural income gap.