The Impact Of Urban-rural Integration On Urban-rural Income Gap

The world has been astonished by China’s economic growth since the reform and opening up,and both urban and rural populations now enjoy higher living conditions.Despite this,there are still inequalities and imbalances,particularly in light of China’s rapidly expanding urban and rural populations,and urban and rural residents’ income gaps have been widening and getting more pronounced.In order to resolve the issue of income inequality between urban and rural areas and to bring about a more harmonious relationship between urban and rural areas,the Chinese government has proposed a number of highly feasible countermeasures and considered formulating a series of policies relating to the integrated development of urban and rural areas,such as the "Outline of the 14 th Five-Year Plan and Vision 2035" promulgated in March 2021,which involves the implementation of the rural revitalization strategy This will help to integrate urban and rural development.As a key part of the rural revitalization and the three rural issues,this paper is bound to have an important impact on the urban-rural income gap.This thesis firstly compares and analyses the current situation of domestic and international research,divides the specific connotation of urban-rural integration development into four parts: economic,spatial,social and ecological,and explores their mechanisms of action on the formation of urban-rural income disparity according to relevant theories and the general requirements of rural revitalization strategy.Secondly,combining the connotation of urban-rural integration,this thesis studies the urban-rural integration development indices of31 provinces and cities from 2008 to 2020,constructs an evaluation index system from four dimensions: urban-rural economic integration,social integration,spatial integration and ecological integration,measures their urban-rural integration development indices using global principal component analysis,and examines the overall index,each dimension index and the current situation of urban-rural The current situation of income disparity is explored.Once again,the fixed-effects model was selected to investigate the direct effects of the urban-rural income gap and the level of urban-rural integrated development as the explanatory and explanatory variables respectively,and the instrumental variables estimation method was used to alleviate the possible endogeneity problems in the model;at the same time,the mediating effects model was used to investigate the driving mechanism of urban-rural integrated development.By studying the effect and mechanism analysis of urban-rural integration development on the urban-rural income gap,we hope to provide reference and reference for local governments to formulate targeted urban-rural integration policies.The main findings of this thesis show that(1)the national urban-rural integration development index shows a steady trend of improvement in general,but different dimensions of integration show a certain degree of variability.The time series of the overall urban-rural integration development index shows a trend of increasing level and decreasing gap;the level of urban-rural spatial integration has been at a high level,and urban-rural social integration has shown a good upward trend,while urban-rural economic integration has remained unchanged in comparison.(2)The urban-rural income difference is shown to have a considerable detrimental impact in the study on the dynamic mechanism of urban-rural integration development.Under different dimensions,the negative effect of ecological integration on the urban-rural income gap is more significant than that of other dimensions.(3)The indirect effect of labor force deagriculturalization is seen when considering how urban-rural integrated development affects labor force deagrarianization.However,the reduction of the urban-rural income gap by the urban-rural integration development index does not work exclusively through labor force deagrarianization.The following recommendations are made by this thesis based on the aforementioned research findings:(1)Rational allocation of human resources in agriculture to broaden farmers’ income sources.The government should play a leading role in bridging the urban-rural gap.It should increase its investment in the "three rural areas" and modernize its technology,so as to promote the development of agriculture and raise the income level of farmers.(2)Promote the geographical integration of urban and rural areas by hastening the installation of interactive infrastructure between them.Improve the building of rural roads,the infrastructure for rural information and circulation,and the service support function of rural infrastructure for urban-rural spatial integration.(3)Actively reform the policy on the distribution of public decision-making,improve the social security system and promote the social integration of urban and rural areas.Efforts should be made to strengthen the socialist rule of law and cultural construction in rural areas,increase the political influence of peasant groups,and enhance their awareness and ability to participate.The government needs to increase its support for rural infrastructure and public services,and speed up the process of bridging the gap between urban and rural social welfare.(4)Implement relevant policies to promote the ecological integration of urban and rural areas and innovate a green development model for urban and rural areas.Strengthening the comprehensive management of the urban and rural environment and ensuring the integration of the urban and rural ecological environment need to play a positive role in guiding the development between urban and rural areas in the direction of harmonious co-existence.