The Impact Of Equalization Of Basic Public Services In Urban And Rural Areas On Urban-rural Income Gap

Common prosperity is the essential requirement of socialism,and the core goal is to achieve equalization of basic public services in urban and rural areas(Referred to as "equalization"),gradually narrowing the urban-rural income gap,and high-quality economic development.Recently,the urban-rural income gap in China has shown a downward trend,but it is still at a relatively high level.Meanwhile,considering the gap in basic public services such as education,medical care,and social security enjoyed by urban and rural residents in China,the urban-rural income gap will be even more severe.The uneven distribution of income between urban and rural areas will inevitably affect the efficiency of economic operation and the level of social welfare,and hinder the realization of the goal of common prosperity.Existing studies have shown that the equalization has effects on the urban-rural income gap in China.For a long time,the party and the government have continuously promoted the equalization of basic public services in China and used it as an important instrument to solve the unbalanced economic and social development of urban and rural areas in China.In view of this,this paper focuses on the equalization in China,and discusses the impact and mechanism of the equalization on the urban-rural income gap.Furthermore,taking the practice and exploration of the pilot area of integrated urban-rural comprehensive reform in C City as a typical case,this paper extracts a practical model for reducing the urban-rural income gap in C City,and evaluates the effect of the equalization on the urban-rural income gap in this context.In order to promote the coordinated development of urban and rural areas in China and achieve common prosperity for everyone,it provides policy reference.This paper comprises 8 chapters.According to the idea of "characteristic facts → influence and action mechanism → case analysis → policy suggestion".Specifically:(1)Describe the temporal and spatial characteristics of the equalization in China;(2)Based on the data on the equalization in prefecturelevel cities,analyze the impact and mechanism of the equalization on the income gap between urban and rural areas in China;(3)Summarizes C City’s practice model of narrowing the urban-rural income gap,and evaluates the causal effect of the equalization on the urban-rural income gap in C City.Chapter 1 expounds the research background,significance,research content,research methods,and summarizes the innovations and deficiencies of this paper.Chapter 2 defines the core concepts of this paper and sorts out the relevant literature at home and abroad.Chapter 3 summarizes the theoretical basis and policy documents related to this paper,and extracts the theoretical analysis framework of this paper.Chapter 4 presents the general situation of China’s urban-rural income gap.Chapter 5 describes the characteristics and regional differences of the equalization.Chapter 6 discusses the impact and mechanism of the equalization on the income gap between urban and rural areas in China.Chapter 7 takes C City as an example of the national pilot area for coordinated urban-rural comprehensive reform,discusses the impact of the equalization on the urban-rural income gap under the background of coordinated urban-rural reform.Chapter 8 summarizes the research conclusions of this paper,discusses policy implications,and puts forward research prospects.The main conclusions are threefold:(1)Recently,the supply level of basic public services in urban and rural areas in China has been continuously improved,but the improvement in the level of equalization between urban and rural areas is relatively small.Through the heterogeneity analysis,it is found that:(1)The equalization level of basic public services in the eastern and northeastern regions are relatively high,much higher than the national average,while the central and western regions are below the national average;(2)The basic public services in provincial capital cities are equalized.The level is significantly higher than that of non-provincial capital cities,indicating that cities with better economic development pay more and more attention to the coordinated development of urban and rural areas;(3)The level of equalization in first-tier and second-tier cities is significantly higher than other cities,and the equalization level in first-tier cities The upward trend during the inspection period is the most obvious;(4)After the promulgation of the policy of the "Twelfth Five-Year Plan for the National Basic Public Service System" in 2012,the level of equalization in China has slightly improved.(2)Equalization can significantly reduce the urban-rural income gap.Based on the analysis of regional heterogeneity,the equalization in the eastern region has the most significant effect on reducing the urban-rural income gap;Based on cross-period heterogeneity analysis,the equalization has a greater effect on narrowing the urban-rural income gap.From the perspective of human capital and population migration,it is found that the improvement of the level of equalization can significantly improve the level of residents’ education and healthy human capital,and can promote the rural-urban migrants’ willingness to stay in cities,thereby narrowing the urban-rural income gap.(3)Based on the case study of C City’s urban and rural reforms,it is found that:(1)C City implements the practice model of "system and mechanism reform+ equal development of basic public services + optimization of factor allocation",which promotes the reduction of urban-rural income gap and realizes the integrated development of urban and rural areas;(2)From 2002 to2018,the level of equalization in C City increased significantly.Specifically,the equalization level of urban and rural basic education,medical and health care and social security public services has shown an upward trend.It can be seen that the overall planning of urban and rural reforms has brought remarkable results to the equalization in C City;The interactive item of urban-rural reform found that coordinating urban-rural reforms should focus on improving the equalization,so as to achieve the goal of narrowing the urban-rural income gap.Moreover,the effect of the equalization on the reduction of the urban-rural income gap is cumulative over time,and the effect of the implementation of the policies in the early stage is superimposed in the later stage.Contributions:(1)From the perspective of cities,it depicts the temporal and spatial characteristics and regional differences of the equalization in China.Domestic research on the equalization and the income gap between urban and rural areas is mostly based on the provincial level,and there are few studies based on the prefecture-level city level,and the understanding of this is not comprehensive enough.Based on the analysis at the provincial level,this paper constructs the basic public service equalization index system of prefecture-level cities,depicts the temporal and spatial characteristics of basic public service equalization,and expands the understanding of the status quo of basic public service equalization in China.It will help government to clarify the key points of the policy when it is introduced to promote the equalization in the process of solidly promoting common prosperity.(2)Based on prefecture-level city data and micro-survey data,this paper discusses the mechanism of the equalization in China on the urban-rural income gap from the perspective of human capital and population migration.It enriches the research on the income distribution effect of the equalization,and also expands the understanding of the relationship between the equalization and human capital and population migration.Taking the policy pilot as an opportunity,we discussed the impact of equalization on the healthy human capital of rural-urban migrants and their willingness to live in cities.It enriches the research on the benefits of basic public services for the migrants,and expands the consideration of the equalization on the urban-rural income gap from a macro-analysis perspective to a micro-analysis perspective.(3)Extracting a practical model for narrowing the urban-rural income gap.There is a lack of research on practical models of narrowing the urban-rural income gap,and even less practical research on improving the urban-rural income gap at the urban level through the equalization.Taking the 2007 national comprehensive urban-rural comprehensive reform—C City Pilot Area,extracts a practice model of C City’s urban-rural coordination with the equalization as the core;The causal relationship between the equalization and the income gap between urban and rural areas in C City.Specifically,C City focuses on promoting the equalization,and takes the optimization of factor allocation as the driving force to promote the integrated development of urban and rural areas and realize the common prosperity of urban and rural residents.The case study of C City provides practical evidence from the city level for realizing the common prosperity of everyone in China.