Research On The Impact Of Rural Human Capital Investment On The Urban-rural Income Gap

The reform and opening up in the 40 provided a strong impetus for China's economy and brought about high-speed economic growth.In recent years,China's economy is shifting from a high speed to a medium-high speed.The average annual growth rate of GDP remains at 6.7%,and the average annual growth rate of urban and rural residents' income is as high as 8%.The income level of residents has been greatly improved,the trend of widening income gap has slowed down,but still in a high hovering stage.The Gini coefficient has been higher than the international warning line for a long time,the explanatory share of urban-rural income gap to the national income gap remains high,and it is still a great challenge for China to curb the continuous expansion of urban-rural income gap.At the same time,the issue of "agriculture,rural areas and farmers" is the core concerns of the party and the people.Solving the problems of "agriculture,rural areas and farmers" and narrowing the income gap between urban and rural areas is the overall and fundamental task for the development of the cause of the party and the people,and it is a powerful recipe for cracking the chronic diseases of "uneven development of urban and rural”.According to the classical human capital theory,the increase of human capital can not only promote economic growth,but also effectively increase personal income and further weaken the momentum of widening income gap.Increasing human capital investment in rural areas can improve the accumulation of human capital of rural residents and realize the extra income of farmers,so as to narrow the urban-rural income gap.However,there are few literatures directly studying the impact of human capital investment in rural areas on the urban-rural income gap.Therefore,it is of great significance to clarify the mechanism of rural human capital investment and its structure on the urban-rural income gap in China to solve the problems of "agriculture,rural areas and farmers",accelerate the construction of new countryside,and narrow the urban-rural income gap.Based on the above realistic background,this paper follows the logical paradigm of problem-analysis and problem-solution,studies how rural human capital investment affects the urban-rural income gap from the perspective of rural human capital investment.Firstly,literature and theoretical studies related to rural human capital investment and urban-rural income gap are sorted out and summarized.Based on human capital theory and urban-rural dual economic structure theory,concepts such as rural human capital,rural human capital investment,urban-rural income gap and labor mobility are defined.Secondly,on the basis of the assumption of free labor flow,based on the human capital accumulation equation,the analysis framework of the urban-rural dual economic structure is constructed,and the impact mechanism of rural human capital investment on the urban-rural income gap is discussed.In addition,it divides rural human capital investment into education investment,health investment and migration investment,reveals the mechanism of rural human capital investment structure on urban-rural income gap,and puts forward relevant hypotheses to provide hypothesis test for the following empirical analysis.Then,we make a statistical description of the periodic characteristics of rural human capital investment and urban-rural income gap from two dimensions of time and space.Followed by using Stata13 measurement software,based on China's 30 provinces(municipalities directly under the central government,autonomous regions)in 1997-2016 panel data,the fixed effect and stochastic effect model were used to investigate the influence of rural human capital investment on the income gap between urban and rural areas from two levels of the country and three regions.The robustness of the empirical results is tested by using the generalized moment estimation(GMM)method of the dynamic panel model.Finally,combined with the conclusion of empirical analysis,from the perspective of rural human capital investment,put forward policy suggestions conducive to narrowing the income gap between urban and rural areas.Through theoretical and empirical analysis,the main conclusions of this paper are as follows:(1)total rural human capital investment,rural education investment,rural health investment and rural migration investment can significantly affect the urban-rural income gap.Under the control of other variables,they all have a long-term equilibrium relationship with the urban-rural income gap.(2)At the national level,rural human capital investment has a significant negative impact on the urban-rural income gap.Over time,increasing rural human capital investment will narrow the urban-rural income gap.The rural human capital investment structure on the influence of income gap between urban and rural areas have heterogeneity,main show is positively correlated with the income gap between urban and rural areas,rural education investment,namely the increase of rural education investment will expand the income gap between urban and rural areas,with a strong hysteresis,it is because the education investment and health investment and the migration of the income gap between urban and rural areas has significant negative effects,namely to improve rural health investment and migration is conducive to narrow the income gap between urban and rural areas.(3)From the perspective of the three regional levels,the impact of rural human capital investment and its structure on the urban-rural income gap has significant regional differences.Among them,the impact of education investment on the urban-rural income gap in east,central and west regions is negative,negative and positive respectively.That is to say,the increase of rural education investment in east and central regions will effectively narrow the urban-rural income gap,while the impact in western regions will expand the urban-rural income gap.Health investment has curbed the widening of urban-rural income gap in the eastern and western regions.The impact of migration investment on the urban-rural income gap in central and western China is positive,indicating that increasing rural migration investment in central and western China will expand the urban-rural income gap in the short term,but can narrow the urban-rural income gap in the long term.(4)The income gap between urban and rural areas has the "Matthew effect",that is,the urban-rural gap in the previous period affects the urban-rural gap in the current period.The self-reinforcing phenomenon of the income gap between urban and rural areas is strong,and it has a significant pathdependent feature.(5)the effect of labor mobility on the urban-rural income gap is negative nationwide,that is,the promotion of labor mobility can narrow the urban-rural income gap,but the performance is different in the regional scope,indicating that the impact of labor mobility on the urban-rural income gap is also regional differences.Based on the above research conclusion,this article from three aspects such as education,health,and migration,put forward the following relevant policy implications:(1)increase financial support to rural education,especially to improve the investment proportion of education,extend the fixed number of year of the nine-year compulsory education,so as to ensure the sustainability of rural compulsory education,more efforts to narrow the gap between urban and rural education,to achieve the real urban and rural education fair;(2)improve the awareness of health investment in rural areas,pay attention to the development of health care in rural areas,build a more perfect rural medical and health care system,alleviate the burden of medical and health care expenditure of farmers,strengthen the accumulation of health human capital of farmers,and provide strong health protection for the increase of farmers' income;(3)guide and regulate the flow and migration of rural surplus labor to cities,implement the talent introduction system in central and western regions,and attract high-quality labor to return to central and western regions and remote rural areas.