The Study Of The Changes Of Urban-Rural Income Gap In Sichuan Since The Reform And Opening Up

Since the reform and opening, the economy of Sichuan has developed rapidly. The overall economic level increased significantly, but due to some reasons, the income gap between urban and rural residents was expanded. Urban-rural income gap is.the most serious aspect of income distribution issues. The study of this issue has theoretical and practical significance. This paper is divided into six parts, the first two parts are Introduction and Literature review, include research purposes, methods, significance and the relevant research results at home and abroad. The third part analyzes the changing trend of urban-rural income gap on the basis of relevant data of Sichuan Province during the process of reform and opening up. In the fourth part, it explains the factors that lead to this trend theoretically. The fifth part is empirical test which obtained nearly the same basic conclusion as the theoretical analysis. The final part gives brief policy recommendations. The main contents of each section are as follows:1. The changing trend of urban-rural income gap in Sichuan ProvinceRural-urban income gap in Sichuan Province shows a growing trend from 1978 to 2008.Urban residents'income growth is greater than the income growth of rural residents. It indicates that the larger share of revenue growth is owned by the urban residents. However, from the view of growth rate, their overall changing trends are increased first, decreased then and reached their highest points in 1994. The highest growth rates are both more than 30%. In different stages of reform, urban and rural residents income growth rate are different. During the growth of urban and rural residents'income, it used absolute gap and relative gap to measure the urban-rural income gap. The absolute gap between income of rural and urban residents in Sichuan Province is widening year after year, except that only a very small reduction in five years from 1978 to 1982. The relative gap of rural-urban income showed upward trend overall and urban-rural income gap gradually expanded. The reform of Sichuan is in the country's reform environment. Compared with the national average level, urban and rural income ratio in Sichuan is in line with the national trend, both show expanding trends.Compared with the average level of western China, urban-rural income ratio in Sichuan is lower. The comparison of psychological income gap, real income gap and statistical income gap shows that the statistical income gap is likely to underestimate the real urban-rural income gap. Urban-rural income gap has become an obstacle of social and economic development in Sichuan. It must be resolved.2. The impact factors of urban-rural income gap in Sichuan ProvinceThis part makes theoretical analysis. This paper mainly analyzes two factors: Firstly, economic growth. The income distribution, as well as the analysis of the unequal distribution of income can not be left to economic growth at any given time. The role of economic growth on urban-rural income gap is not directly produced. It forms by the transmission factors, including labor, capital (physical capital and human capital) and technology. When elements involved in the distribution, the difference in possession of production factors will widen the income gap. Both the quality and quantity of labor have influence on urban-rural income gap. The increase in production, technological structure and industrial structure upgrading brought by economic growth will affect the human capital and physical capital accumulation, thereby affecting the urban and rural income distribution.In the complex environment of the socialist market economy, the effect of economic growth on the urban-rural income gap exists many uncertainties, will improve or worse. A sustained and stable economic growth will improve the urban-rural income gap. The economic growth that constrained by economic environment and conditions is likely to worsen the rural-urban income gap.The second factor is the dual economic structure. Economic structure is an important factor that affects the income gap between urban and rural residents. The existence of dual economic structure in Sichuan Province has its historical reasons. The priority of heavy industry's industrialization strategy is the economic reason for the formation of the dual structure. The urban-rural dual systems strengthened the dual economic structure. The urban and rural reform are not synchronized which restricts the changes of urban-rural dual economic structure. The performance of dual economic structure in Sichuan Province include:(1) irrational industrial structure. (2) The duality of urban and rural distribution pattern. (3)The duality of urban and rural consumption level. (4) The structural condition of employment in urban and rural areas in Sichuan Province. (5) Urbanization lags behind industrialization. Based on the above performance of urban-rural dual economic structure, take them as the independent variables and take urban-rural income ratio as the dependent variable, we can introduced two simple dual economy models. Dual economic model of urbanization and industrialization synchronized and the dual economy model of urbanization lag industrialization.They are:In R=ln Ry+In Rl-ln Rr In R=ln Ry+In Rl-In Rr+λln Rz.Where R and R' is the urban-rural income ratio, Rz is the lag in urbanization and industrialization. Ry is the dual contrast coefficient, Rl is the distribution coefficient ratio, and Rr is the ratio of burden population for the urban and rural labor.3. The Empirical AnalysisIn this part, it uses an econometric approach to do empirical analysis and to explore the relationship between urban-rural income gap and these factors mentioned above. It obtains conclusions which are basically in line with the theoretical and empirical analysis. In empirical study of the effect of economic growth on urban-rural income gap, it does unit root test to time series data. Then it makes the co-integration test to come to the error correction model. It concluded that:(1) the income growth of urban and rural residents in Sichuan Province is not only depends on the province's GDP growth, but also depends on the deviation of urban-rural income growth to the balanced growth level. (2) When GDP growth changes 1 million Yuan, the income of urban residents changes 0.734055 Yuan, and the income of rural residents changes 0.254562 Yuan. In the empirical analysis of dual economic structure, according to the dual economic models derived above, make multiple regressions. The result also has been largely in line with reality. Sichuan urban-rural income ratio has positive correlations with dual contrast coefficient, distribution coefficient, urbanization lag. It has a negative correlation with the urban and rural each labor force's burden of population. However, the research level is still limited; there are the issues which still need further improvement.4. Recommendations This part mainly proposes concise recommendations from the two aspects of economic growth and the dual economic structure. (1) Promote rural economic growth and do everything possible to increase rural people's income. The main focuses are the stability of agricultural production, energetically transformation of traditional agriculture, upgrading of rural industrial structure, improving of agricultural productivity, eliminating of obstacles to growth through government regulation. (2) Eliminate the dual economy gradually; speed up the urbanization process, co-ordinate the development of urban and rural areas. Breaking the urban-rural dual structure, and co-coordinating the development of urban and rural areas are the most important history tasks of Sichuan Province. To accomplish this task, the government must be use economic, legal, market and administrative means comprehensively based on the fully study.The main innovation point in this article may be a comparison of the real, statistical and psychological urban-rural income gap. It points that:the statistical