Research On The Effect Of Infrastructure On Poverty Alleviation

Poverty is a significant issue in the history of human survival.It affects not only the physical and mental health of the poor residents,but also the social stability.On November 29,2015,the promulgation of the decision of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council on winning the battle against poverty sounded the clarion call of the battle against poverty.Eradicating poverty is a common dream of mankind and an inevitable requirement for achieving a moderately prosperous society in all respects.The decision points to strengthening infrastructure construction in poor and rural areas,accelerating the removal of development bottlenecks,mobilizing the whole of society and making concerted efforts to combat poverty.In the final run-off period,this paper studies the poverty reduction effect of transportation,communication and electricity infrastructure in different regions by combining qualitative analysis with quantitative analysis,empirical analysis with normative analysis,it is of great significance to the rational layout of infrastructure,the realization of precise poverty alleviation and the overall realization of a well-off society.In theory,this paper mainly analyzes the poverty reduction mechanism of transportation,communication and electricity infrastructure from the following two aspects.On the one hand,they have a direct effect on poverty reduction.Transportation infrastructure improves the living and production efficiency,creates new production activities,and promotes the development of the industry.And it also increases the opportunity of getting a job and accessing to services such as health care and education.The communication infrastructure strengthens the information exchange between regions,reduces the cost of information search,and promotes the transfer of labor force and the development of rural industries.And it is also conducive to the spread of quality education resources to poor areas,promoting the accumulation of human capital in poor areas.The electricity infrastructure improves the living and production conditions of the poor and the living and production efficiency.All of these directly raise the incomes of the poor.On the other hand,they have a indirect effect on poverty reduction.Infrastructure also indirectly increases the income of the poor through the leakage effect and fiscal effect generated by promoting economic growth and narrowing the income distribution gap.Empirically,this paper first analyzes the current situation of poverty and infrastructure in China.China has made great achievements in poverty alleviation.The income level of residents in poverty-stricken areas is low and the growth rate is high,and the health poverty is also decreasing year by year.However,China's population base is large,and the poverty-stricken population is mainly concentrated in the western region,with large regional differences in distribution,and the task of poverty alleviation is still severe.China's infrastructure level has been improved year by year,but there are also large regional differences.The level of transportation infrastructure in the Eastern and central regions is 4.3 times and 3.3 times higher than that in the western regions,respectively.The level of communication and electricity infrastructure in the Eastern Region is significantly higher than that in the Western and central regions,and the regional differences of the three infrastructure levels are increasing year by year.Correlation analysis found that the three levels of infrastructure and the level of poverty in the region are inversely related.Then,based on the unbalanced panel data of 31 provinces and autonomous regions in China from 2010 to 2018,this paper constructs an econometric model to analyze the impact of infrastructure on regional poverty,taking the incidence of rural poverty as the main index to measure the degree of poverty,and draws the following conclusions.First,the improvement of transportation,communication and electricity infrastructure level can effectively reduce poverty,but the degree of poverty reduction is different.Transport infrastructure plays a greater role in poverty reduction,while communication and electricity infrastructure plays a smaller role.The poverty reduction effect of highway is significantly greater than that of railway,and that of postal infrastructure is significantly greater than that of telecommunication infrastructure.Secondly,there are regional differences in the poverty reduction effect of infrastructure.Transportation infrastructure plays the most important role in poverty reduction in the western region,communication infrastructure plays the most important role in poverty reduction in the central and western regions,and electricity infrastructure plays a less obvious role in poverty reduction in all regions.Third,economic growth is still a powerful tool for poverty reduction,and the upgrading of industrial structure also plays an important role in poverty reduction.However,the inhibition of income inequality on poverty reduction cannot be ignored.According to the results of the research,this paper puts forward the following suggestions.First,the overall infrastructure structure should be rationally planned and infrastructure construction should be strengthened in the central and western regions,so as to not only strengthen the weak links in infrastructure,but also avoid the saturation and surplus of infrastructure.The complementation of railway and highway should also be realized and reasonably plan the proportion of railway and highway construction.Second,to achieve full coverage of the last kilometer of roads,agricultural networks and dynamic electricity,we should not only improve the coverage rate,but also improve the utilization rate,so as to stimulate the vitality of communication and power infrastructure to reduce poverty.Third,continue to enhance the role of infrastructure in reducing poverty through economic growth,while strictly preventing and controlling the inhibiting effect of income inequality on poverty reduction.