Study On Urban Poverty In Urbanization Based On FGT Index

After decades of practice of poverty alleviation, along with economic growth,China has made remarkable achievements in reducing large-scale poverty. But in the process of urbanization and socio-economic transformation,the rate of poverty reduction in China is gradually slowing down. In 2014, President Xi Jinping pointed out in a speech in Belgium, "according to World Bank poverty standard, China still has 200 million people living below the poverty line, which is almost equal to the total population of France, Germany and the United Kingdom." Thus, poverty problem is still exsiting in the developing countries. China is currently experiencing a critical period of transition and urbanization is the inevitable product of China’s social development. At present, the level of urbanization gradually improves and urban poverty becomes more severe. Therefore, to achieve comprehensive poverty reduction in urban areas, we need to focus on the issue of impact of urbanization on urban poverty.In this paper, the issue of urban poverty is placed in the context of urbanization.The author takes Hubei Province which locates in the central region as an example.First,the author uses data from Statistical Yearbook and the Lorenz curve to quantify and measure urban poverty, then studies FGT index in Hubei Province from1992 to 2012, namely studies the change of poverty incidence, poverty gap and squared poverty gap rate.This paper fully reflects the situation of poverty trends from ranges,depth and strength of poverty in Hubei Province. Secondly,based on background of urbanization,we study the impact of urbanization on urban poverty from three aspects, namely, economic growth, population urbanization and industrial economic structure.We conclude the current economic growth in Hubei Province has an effect on poverty reduction by using analytical methods of derived regression model.The rapid economic growth leads employment and local government expenditure on social security, thus slow down the urban poverty;Populationurbanization and the status of economic industrial structure has a tendency to increase urban poverty, because migrant workers encounter a variety of obstacles in the process of being citizens. Industrial and economic restructuring cause narrow employment, low wages, then increase urban poverty to some extent. Finally, based on the results of empirical analysis,we propose three anti-poverty measures:promoting the "pro-poor" economic growth, promoting urbanization of the rural population and optimize the industrial structure.Therefore,the study not only helps to deepen our understanding of the China’s urban poverty and provide some theoretical guidance in the relationship between urbanization and urban poverty, but also provides beneficial enlightenment for the anti-urban poverty measures.