| Since the founding of New China,China's urban-rural dual structure has been gradually formed and consolidated under the guidance of the Catch-Up Strategy.In recent years,China's economic development has created a "Chinese miracle" that has attracted the world's attention,and people's lives have improved significantly,however,behind the economic development,the problem of inequality has gradually come to the fore.The income gap,especially the urban-rural income gap,is a concentrated embodiment of this inequality.With the change of macroeconomic and social environment,the urban-rural gap has gradually extended to economic,social,and other fields.The traditional sense of urban-rural income gap cannot fully reflect the inequality between urban and rural areas,and "multidimensionality" should become an important perspective for the research on urban-rural gap.How has the urban-rural gap evolved in the process of changing urban-rural relations? What are the factors that influence the gap,and what is the role and extent of the influence? What is the correlation between urban-rural disparities in various dimensions? In the new stage and period of building a socialist modern state,does the evolution of the urban-rural gap have a hindering effect on high-quality development? To answer the above questions,based on a comprehensive review of urban-rural relations in China over the past 70 years,the urban-rural gap is measured in four dimensions: residents' life,industrial development,factor allocation and social livelihood,using data from 30 provinces from 1993 to 2017.Based on the concept of multidimensional inequality,this paper constructs a dynamic simultaneous equation model to analyze the causes of urban-rural gap and the interaction between dimensions.From the perspective of the new pattern of economic development,we analyze the impact of urban-rural gap on economic GDP,economic TFP,consumer market scale and capital scale,providing empirical tests for the study of relationship between urban-rural gap and economic development,and at the same time providing rich empirical support for the subsequent deployment and implementation of strategies and policies related to integrated urban-rural development and comprehensive construction of a socialist modern state.The findings of the paper show that:(1)The Whole-level urban-rural gap,measured from multidimensional perspective,is declining at an average annual rate of-0.45% and shows a stepped spatial distribution of "High in the West and Low in the East".The urban-rural gap in residents' life is declining slowly,but the level of the gap remained high,and the urban-rural gap in social livelihood is gradually becoming magnify.The gap in industrial development and factor allocation is "solidified" and even intensified.(2)There is an interactive positive relationship between urban-rural residents' living gap and urban-rural social livelihood gap;the urban-rural industrial development gap can strengthen the urbanrural social livelihood gap.There is a mutually inhibitory relationship between the gap in residents' life and industrial development.(3)The impact of the four factors on the urban-rural gap in different dimensions is differentiated.The urban-rural social and livelihood gap shrinks by 0.12 for every unit increase in per capita GDP,which implies it is necessary to promote regional economic development,especially in the less developed central and western regions,and improve the financial capacity of local governments.In terms of marketization,every 1% increase leads to a 0.33 decrease in the urban-rural gap in residents' lives,while the gap in factor allocation and social livelihood increases by 0.88 and 1.33 respectively.That's means the government's "tangible hand" should be used to regulate and control the supply of public services.In terms of urbanization,every 1% increase leads to the gap in terms of residents' living and factor allocation shrinks by 0.24 and 1.88 respectively,while the urban-rural social and livelihood gap increases by 0.77.For every 1% increase in the urban scale structure,the urban-rural social and livelihood gap increases by 0.17.Therefore,we should promote the new urbanization with household registration reform to enhance farmers' willingness to become citizens and improve the level of public services for all.In terms of finance,for every 1% increase in agriculture-related fiscal expenditures,the urban-rural gap in residents' living and industrial development expands by 0.62 and 0.76 respectively,but in the long run,the urban-rural industrial development gap shrinks by 0.61.For per 1%increase in general public service expenditures,the urban-rural gap in social and livelihood shrinks by0.42.That's means it is urgent to reform and improve the government's fiscal expenditure structure and correct the "town-oriented" and "economy-oriented" effects of fiscal policy.(4)The whole urban-rural gap has a negative impact on high-quality development.There are significant differences in the impact of the urban-rural gap across dimensions.GDP is influenced by the gap in residents' livelihood and industrial development,and the real GDP decreases by 0.03 and 0.01 units for every 1 unit of the gap's expansion;TFP is influenced by every 1 unit of urban-rural gap in industrial development and factor allocation,and decreases by 0.01 and 0.01 units,respectively.The impact of urban-rural gap in social livelihood and factor allocation on real consumption scale decreases in order.The consumption scale shrinks by 0.11 and0.04 units for every 1-unit expansion of each gap.The actual capital scale decreases by 0.02 and 0.04 units for each 1-unit impact of the gap in livelihood and factor allocation,respectively.In addition,the urban-rural living gap has a "net positive effect" on the scale of consumption.The urban-rural gap has a significant retarding effect on the quality development of the economy.Therefore,reducing the urbanrural gap have become the inevitable requirements and development trend of building a new pattern of economic development in the new era of high-quality development.The innovation of the paper is mainly reflected in three aspects: First,construct the indicator system of urban-rural gap from a multidimensional perspective.Secondly,integrate the multidimensional urbanrural gap into the same framework from a multidimensional inequality perspective,and to test the correlation between each dimension while analyzing the role of external influencing factors.Thirdly,from the perspective of a new pattern of economic development,the paper empirically analyzes the impact of urban-rural gap on economic GDP and TFP,consumption scale and capital scale,to explore the path of multidimensional urban-rural disparity affecting high-quality development. |
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