Research On Income Distribution Effect Of Rural Infrastructure Investment

Since the establishment of the People’s Republic of China,China has been committed to changing the backwardness of traditional agricultural countries,building advanced industrial countries,and fully unleashing social productivity.Especially in the late 1970 s,China implemented the basic national policy of reform and opening up,thus entering the fast lane of economic development.However,in the process of transforming agricultural civilization into industrial civilization,there will inevitably be the "three rural issues" centered around weak rural foundation,slow rural development,and low farmers’ income.Entering the new era of socialism with Chinese characteristics,the main contradiction in society has been transformed into a contradiction between the growing needs of the people for a better life and imbalanced and insufficient development.Among them,the main manifestation of imbalanced and insufficient development in the "three rural issues" is the significant urban-rural income gap and the complex internal income gap in rural areas.Therefore,preventing and narrowing the income gap is an essential part of implementing the rural revitalization strategy and achieving common prosperity.It is a consensus in the academic community that rural infrastructure construction drives rural economic development,but there are vastly different research results and perspectives on the income distribution effect of rural infrastructure construction.On the one hand,through aggregate analysis,it is found that rural infrastructure can guarantee and promote agricultural output,promote non agricultural employment,optimize resource allocation,and reduce the cost of production factor flow.It can not only increase rural household income,but also narrow the income gap;On the other hand,through heterogeneity analysis,it was found that infrastructure construction has different investment returns for different rural households due to low human capital,dispersed public investment,and policy lag.It may even have a negative income distribution effect on rural households with insufficient human capital and long-term consumption capacity,leading to further widening income disparities.Therefore,a problem oriented approach that shifts the research perspective to the availability of infrastructure by micro households is necessary to further identify insufficient infrastructure investment,propose targeted optimization suggestions,and leverage the positive income distribution effect.This article selects rural households across the country as the research object,attempting to start from the demand side and measure the availability of infrastructure by micro households through the cost,usage,and evaluation of each rural household’s use of different infrastructure.At the same time,as much as possible,different rural infrastructure is placed in an empirical analysis system to study the income distribution effects of different rural infrastructure.On the basis of mechanism analysis and current situation analysis,based on the demand side of rural households,the use cost,usage status,and usage evaluation of different infrastructure by micro households are used as corresponding proxy variables for rural infrastructure.A two-way fixed effects model is used for group regression.One is to examine the impact of rural infrastructure on rural household income.The second is to examine the impact of rural infrastructure on the internal income gap in rural areas.The third is to examine the impact of rural infrastructure on the urban-rural income gap.The robustness of the results is ensured by reducing the sample size.The results are as follows:(1)Overall,rural infrastructure investment has a significant promoting effect on the per capita net income of rural households,but different infrastructure shows different income growth effects.Specifically,the construction of transport infrastructure,cultural infrastructure,energy infrastructure and Internet infrastructure has significantly promoted the per capita net income of rural households,while the electric power infrastructure,farmland and water conservancy infrastructure,compulsory education,drinking water safety and health care infrastructure have no significant impact on the per capita net income of rural households.(2)Overall,rural infrastructure investment has had the effect of improving the income gap within rural areas.Rural infrastructure investment first plays a role in economic growth,but has different effects on different income groups,thereby narrowing the income gap between groups.Specifically,transport infrastructure can improve the rural internal income gap;Cultural infrastructure cannot improve the income gap within rural areas;Energy infrastructure will expand the income gap within rural areas;Internet infrastructure can improve the income gap within rural areas.(3)Insufficient investment in rural infrastructure to bridge the urban-rural income gap.Specifically,the income growth effect of urban transport infrastructure investment is greater than that of rural transport infrastructure,so rural transport infrastructure is not enough to make up the urban-rural income gap;Both urban and rural culture and investment in energy infrastructure can have a significant positive impact on the per capita net income of urban and rural households,but there is no significant difference in inter group coefficients,which cannot improve the urban-rural income gap;The income growth effect generated by urban internet infrastructure investment is greater than that of rural internet infrastructure,so rural internet infrastructure is not sufficient to fill the urban-rural income gap.Therefore,this thesis puts forward the following suggestions: First,coordinated development of infrastructure,focusing on investment in transport infrastructure and Internet infrastructure,appropriate investment in cultural infrastructure and energy infrastructure,and selective investment in electricity,farmland and water conservancy,compulsory education,drinking water security and medical and health infrastructure in combination with the needs of people’s livelihood.The second is the government’s leading guidance to promote joint construction and sharing.The government should firmly establish its main position,play its leading role,leverage the backbone advantages of state-owned enterprises in rural infrastructure investment,and guide private enterprises and rural forces to invest in rural infrastructure construction.The third is to flexibly supply,supplement the management chain,improve the institutional supply mechanism in rural areas,clarify "who will invest","what to invest","should not invest",and "how to manage",and deepen the "first mile" and "last mile" of rural infrastructure construction.