| Since the reform and opening up,China’s economy has developed rapidly and overall national income has risen significantly,but the income gap between urban and rural residents has also grown.In 2017,the per capita income of urban residents in China was Y36,396,and the per capita net income of rural residents was Y 13,432.The absolute income gap between urban and rural residents reached ￥22,964,and it may still increase further in the next few years.China has a vast territory,and the level of economic development varies greatly among different regions.The income gap between urban and rural areas in different regions is also quite large.The income gap between urban and rural areas in central-western provinces is significantly larger than that in the eastern provinces.The optimization of industrial structure has a direct impact on the structure of urban and rural industrial workers and the level of wage income.Financial development can directly affect residents’ property income and can also indirectly affect other income of residents by affecting the optimization of industrial structure.Therefore,financial development and industrial structure both have a very important impact on the income gap between urban and rural residents.Studying the impact of financial development and industrial structure on the income gap between urban and rural residents is of great significance to improve people’s well-being,establish a fair and harmonious society and ensure the sustainable and stable economic development.First of all,this paper constructs a theoretical model of financial development and industrial structure,industrial structure and income gap,analyzes the mutual influence relationship between variables,and further analyzes the comprehensive impact mechanism of financial development and industrial structure on urban and rural residents’ income gap.Secondly,a spatial econometric model was constructed based on the panel data of 31 provinces in China from 2004 to 2016,and the impact of financial development and industrial structure on income gap between urban and rural residents was analyzed in the eastern and central-western regions respectively.Finally,the sum of residents’ wage income and operating income is taken as a general income,and the impact of financial development and industrial structure on the general income gap and the income gap of property between urban and rural residents is further analyzed.The research results show that:(1)The scale of financial development is conducive to reducing the income gap between urban and rural residents while the impact of the efficiency of financial development is not significant..From a regional perspective,the scale of financial development and the efficiency of financial development have a significant impact in the central-western regions,while the related impact in the eastern region is not significant.From the perspective of the composition of income gap,the scale of financial development and the efficiency of financial development are conducive to reducing the general income gap between urban and rural areas in the whole country and in the central-western regions,but the scale of financial development will significantly increase the income gap of property between urban and rural areas.(2)The rationalization of the industrial structure helps to reduce the income gap between urban and rural residents,while the impact of the advanced industrial structure is not significant.From a regional perspective,the rationalization of the industrial structure in the eastern and central-western regions is conducive to narrowing the urban-rural income gap.The advanced industrial structure in the eastern region will significantly increase the income gap between urban and rural areas.From the perspective of the composition of income gap between urban and rural areas,the rationalization of the industrial structure in the whole country and the central-western regions will significantly reduce the general income gap between urban and rural areas,and widen the income gap of property between urban and rural areas.The advanced industrial structure in the eastern region will significantly expand the general income gap between urban and rural areas. |
