Research On The Impact Of Guangdong's Trade Openness On Urban-rural Income Gap

The relationship between trade and income inequality has long been concerned by the academic community,and the urban-rural income gap is an important part of China's income inequality.Therefore,studying the relationship between trade openness and urban-rural income gap is of great value to the government's decision in narrowing the urban-rural income gap through trade policy.This paper examines the impact of Guangdong's trade openness on the urban-rural income gap from the two aspects of total trade and import and export trade based on the panel data of 20 prefecture-level cities in Guangdong Province from 2005 to 2016.Meanwhile,this paper examines transmission mechanism of technological advancement and urbanization.Firstly,the paper sorts out the meaning and background of the topic,the research content and the related research literatures.Secondly,the Heckcher-Ohlin Theory,The Stolper-Samuelson Theorem,the Specific Elements Model and the New Trade Theory are used as the theoretical basis of this paper.On this basis,the transmission mechanism of the trade openness effect on the urban-rural income gap is detailed.Next,based on the current situation of Guangdong's foreign trade and urban-rural income gap,we judge the relationship between trade openness and urban-rural income gap.Finally,we analysis the impact of Guangdong's trade openness and urban-rural income gap by the full-sample and sub-regional regression,and we have constructed an intermediary model to test the mechanism of trade openness affecting urban-rural income gap.The main conclusions are as follows:(1)The Guangdong's trade openess will expand the income gap between urban and rural areas.After the regression of the sub-regional samples of the Pearl River Delta region and the non-Pearl River Delta region,the impact of trade openness on the urban-rural income gap is positive,indicating that trade openness will widen the urban-rural income gap in the Pearl River Delta region and the non-Pearl River Delta region.The effect of trade opening on the urban-rural income gap in the non-Pearl River Delta region is stronger than that in the Pearl River Delta region.(2)The development of import trade in Guangdong Province will widen the income gap between urban and rural areas.The coefficient of export trade to urban-rural income gap is negative,but not significant.After being divided into sub-samples of the Pearl River Delta region and the non-Pearl RiverDelta,the impact of import trade on the urban-rural income gap between the Pearl River Delta and the non-Pearl River Delta is positive,indicating that the development of import trade will expand the urban-rural income gap.in the Pearl River Delta and non-Pearl River Delta regions.(3)The Guangdong's trade openness will directly expand the urban-rural income gap.The sub-regional sample study shows that the impact of trade openness on the urban-rural income gap has the mediating effect of technological advancement and urbanization.The trade openness in the Pearl River Delta region will further expand the urban-rural income gap through technological advancement.The trade opening will indirectly reduce the urban-rural income gap in the Pearl River Delta by promoting urbanization.The non-Pearl River Delta region's trade opening will indirectly narrow the urban-rural income gap through technological advancement and further expand the urban-rural income gap by promoting urbanization.Therefore,based on the research conclusions of this paper,we proposes the policy recommendations to narrow the urban-rural income gap in Guangdong Province from promoting trade development,promoting technological advancement and promoting the free flow of urban and rural labor.