Social Capital Transition And Income Inequality In Rural China Under The Background Of Social Structure Change

Relative to the income gap of residents,the income inequality in rural China is a more acute problem which has not yet been paid enough attention.In fact,rural China is a typical relationship society(Liang,2011).Ignoring the characteristics of social capital which are embedded in the market,relying solely on the market mechanisms can not fundamentally solve the problem of income inequality in rural China.In particular,the continuous fermentation of rural reform has profoundly changed the characteristics of rural social structure and farmers' social capital.The change of social structure in rural China has strengthened the social mobility of farmers,which makes the social capital of farmers have more obvious characteristics of disembedding.However,the formation of disembedding social capital and its impact on income inequality in rural China have not yet caused enough attention.At this stage,social structure change,social capital transition and income inequality coexist in rural China.This paper summarizes the scientific issues focused on: the mechanism of social capital transition on income inequality in rural China under the background of social structure change.Following the logical thought of theoretical research,empirical research and policy research,this paper aims to alleviate the contradiction of income inequality in rural China.Theoretical research reveals the mechanism of social structure change and social capital transition on income inequality in rural China,to construct the theoretical analysis framework for empirical study,and put forward the research hypotheses.In empirical research,based on the descriptive statistics,theoretical model and numerical simulation,this paper uses the data of Chinese General Social Survey(CGSS),and the methods of Recentered Influence Function Regression(RIF)and Unconditional Quantile Regression(UQR)to verify the research hypotheses.In policy research,based on the robust research results,this paper puts forward a policy system to rectify the income inequality in rural China,whose core lies in narrowing the socialization inequality in rural China.The main contents and conclusions of this paper are summarized as follows.(1)Putting forward the theoretical category of social capital under the background of social structure change,finding that social capital is divided into disembedding social capital and embedding social capitalThe rural social structure change boosts farmers' social capital from homogeneity to heterogeneity.Social capital is divided into the disembedding social capital and the embedding social capital.The embedding social capital refers to the social resources with characteristics of homogeneity and relative closeness,which are based on blood relationship and geographical relationship.The disembedding social capital refers to the heterogenous social resources with characteristics of high quality,open boundary and strong fusion,which are based on karmic relationship,broad space for employment and indirect communication.The disembedding social capital mainly covers the dimensions of spatial flow,occupation conversion and karmic relationship.(2)Constructing a theoretical analysis framework of the effect of social capital transition on income inequality in rural China,finding that social capitals affect income inequality in rural China through the process of capital deficit and return deficitThe disembedding social capital and embedding social capital affect the income inequality in rural China through the process of capital deficit and return deficit.The capital deficit refers to the differences in the quantity and quality of social capital among famers,which lead to the differences in the ability of obtaining resources.The return deficit refers to a certain number of social capitals having differential rates of return among famers,leading to differences in the ability of integrating resources.(3)Deducing the mathematical model of the impact of social capital transition on income inequality in rural China,finding that the differentiation of social capital expands income gap of farmersOn the one hand,farmers with different economic and social characteristics choose different social capital investment strategy,namely the disembedding social capital or the embedding social capital,causing the difference of social capital between quantity and quality of farmers.On the other hand,compared with the farmers who only have the embedding social capital,the farmers with disembedding social capital can get higher returns.The combined effect of the two forces stimulates the expansion of income gap.(4)Verifying the research hypothesis of disembedding social capital influencing income inequality in rural China,finding that the disembedding social capital is more conducive to increase the income level of the rich farmers,thus stimulating the expansion of income inequality in rural ChinaThe disembedding social capital has widened the operating income inequality and the transfer income inequality of farmers that has worsened the income inequality in rural China.Moreover,the effect of the disembedding social capital on the income inequality is more obvious for the farmers from the central and western regions.The rich farmers are not only having more disembedding social capital,but also obtaining higher income returns from the disembedding social capital.(5)Verifying the research hypothesis of embedding social capital influencing income inequality in rural China,finding that the traditional embedding social capital does not significantly affect the income inequality in rural ChinaOnce controlling the formation of the disembedding social capital under the background of social structure change,the influence of the embedding social capital on the income inequality of farmers will be significantly weakened.The embedding social capital is to reduce the transfer income inequality in rural China.However,there is no obvious influence of embedding social capital on operating income inequality,wage income inequality and property income inequality in rural China.Compared with the existing research,the innovations of this paper are mainly summarized as follows.(1)Putting forward formation mechanism and quantitative system of disembedding social capitalMany of the existing literatures are lack of social capital heterogeneity studies.Especially the new characteristics and trends of rural social capital under the background of social structure change have not yet attracted the attention of academic community.This paper presents the definition of disembedding social capital and embedding social capital based on the special background of rural economic and social transformation.Then,the quantitative index systems of disembedding social capital and embedding social capital are constructed.This paper accurately grasps the attributes and characteristics of farmers' social capital under the background of social structure change,and expands the research scope of existing social capital theory.(2)Setting up the mechanism and path of different social capital on income and income inequality in rural ChinaThe impact of different types of social capital on the income and income inequality of farmers has a significant difference.Ignoring the fact,it is worthy of discussion of the scientific conclusions.This paper explores the mechanism and path of disembedding social capital and embedding social capital on income and income inequality in rural China from the perspective of differentiation of farmers' social capital.That is to say,this paper builds a new perspective and framework to explain the formation mechanism of income inequality in rural China in context of economic and social transformation.(3)Verifying the role of disembedding social capital in the process of widening the income inequality in rural ChinaThere is a big difference in the investment strategy and use efficiency of social capital among farmers.Ignoring the fact,the results are not convincing.The role of disembedding social capital in the process of widening the income inequality in rural China has been clarified based on the investigation of the distribution of social capital and the rate of returns in different income farmers.That is to say,this paper provides a new empirical evidence to explain income inequality of farmers in the new situation,and releases more policy signals to correct the contradiction of income inequality of farmers at the present stage.