The Impact Of Urban-Rural Integration On The Well-being Of Urban And Rural Residents In China

Since the start of the reform and opening up the Chinese society and economy have been developing in a rapid way.Under the influence of the urban-rural dual system,however,the gap between country and city development has been always obvious,and rural decline and urban congestion coexist.For solving a series of problems triggered by the uneven development between urban and rural areas,the urban-rural integration development has come to be taken seriously since 2000,and No.1 Documents on the theme of dealing with the tri-agricultural issues(agriculture,rural areas,and rural people)have been released for many years.Besides,reports of the 16 th,17th,18 th,and 19 th National Congress of the Communist Party of China have repeatedly emphasized and raised a chain of policies.The ultimate goal of promoting urban-rural integration is to enable rural and urban residents to share the fruits of modernization and jointly improve their well-being.This paper focuses on the internal relationship between urban-rural integration and the well-being of urban and rural residents,analyzing the mechanism and impact of urban-rural integration on the well-being of urban and rural residents.Based on the connotation of the urban-rural integration and the definition of urban and rural residents' well-being,this paper further analyzes the mechanism of the well-being of urban and rural residents from the urban-rural integration,structuring the measure index system of the urban-rural integration and the differences of the well-being of urban and rural residents,evaluating and analyzing the development level of the urban-rural integration and the differences in the well-being of urban and rural residents.On the basis of coupling coordinative degree model,the coupling degree between the urban-rural integration and the well-being of urban and rural residents is measured so as to reflect the function of China's urban-rural integration process on narrowing the well-being of urban and rural residents.Specific conclusions are as follows:(1)Urban-rural integration promotes the improvement of urban residents' well-being by raising the supply quality of agricultural products,optimizing the supply of rural labor,upgrading the allocation of urban and rural population,advancing the citizenization of migrant workers,and providing urban ecological leisure space and etc.Through facilitating the adjustment of rural industrial structure,increasing the non-agricultural employment,improving the rural residents' income,promoting the rural consumption upgrading,and beautifying the rural landscape and environment,the well-being of rural residents is developed so as to jointly improve the well-being of urban and rural residents and narrow the gap between the well-being of urban and rural residents.(2)The level of the urban-rural integration in China is on the rise.From the perspective of time,the comprehensive index of urban-rural integration in China from 2005 to 2015 increased from 0.3626 to 0.4953,with an increase of 36.61%.From the perspective of space,the level of urban-rural integration in all provinces has been steadily improved,and the regional differences have been narrowed.(3)The gap between urban and rural residents' well-being is narrowing.From the perspective of time,the index value of well-being difference between urban and rural residents in China from 2005 to 2015 decreased from 0.4581 to 0.3167,with a decrease of 30.86%.From the perspective of space,the difference of urban and rural residents' welfare in each province continues to decrease,and the difference between regions is also lessening.(4)The process of urban-rural integration in China has promoted the narrowing of the difference in the well-being of urban and rural residents.From 2005 to 2015,the level of urban-rural integration and the degree of differential coupling between urban and rural residents' welfare remained high,and increased from 0.7694 to 0.9240.The coordination degree was at a low level,but the growth rate was obvious,rising from 0.4126 to 0.5754,from the basic imbalance to the basic coordination.From the point of view of each province,the spatial difference of coupling degree is relatively small,the mean value is higher,and the gradient of coordination degree is more apparent.On the whole,the overall synergistic effect of urban-rural integration and the difference in the well-being of urban and rural residents is gradually enhanced,and the urban-rural integration has better promoted the common improvement of the wellbeing of urban and rural residents.