Research On The Urban-rural Income Gap And Urban Residents' Consumption Tendency In The Process Of Urbanizatio

Since the reform and opening up,China’s population urbanization process has been continuously promoted.In the process of urbanization,great changes have taken place in the rural migrant labor force,the urban-rural income gap and the consumption tendency of urban residents.The number of rural migrant laborers has decreased significantly and their education level has gradually increased.The number of rural migrant laborers has decreased significantly and their education level has gradually increased.The income gap between urban and rural areas gradually decreases with the goverment’s regulation and the improvement of rural residents’ education level.The consumption propensity of urban residents decreases rather than increases at the beginning of urbanization due to the imperfect household registration system,but gradually increases with the improvement of the household registration system and social security system.The changes of both urban-rural income gap and urban residents’ propensity to consume in the urbanization process are influenced by the changes of rural migrant labor force.This paper first constructs a binary economic model from traditional economic theories and related assumptions in the existing literature,puts the income gap between urban and rural residents and urban residents’ propensity to consume into the same framework for analysis,argues the impact of changes in rural migrant labor on both,and puts forward related hypotheses.Then,we construct a relevant econometric model and test the hypotheses using national time series data and panel data.The results show that:(1)the decrease in the number of separated rural migrant labor force during urbanization makes the urban-rural income gap increase;(2)the increase in the education level of rural migrant labor force during urbanization makes the urban-rural income gap decrease;(3)the decrease in the number of separated rural migrant labor force during urbanization makes urban residents’ consumption propensity increase;(4)the increase in the education level of rural migrant labor force during urbanization makes urban residents’ consumption propensity decrease.Finally,in response to the findings of this paper,policy recommendations such as improving the educational attainment of rural residents,lowering the threshold for urban settlement,and stripping social security from the household registration system are proposed.