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Arid Land Geography ›› 2024, Vol. 47 ›› Issue (1): 147-157.doi: 10.12118/j.issn.1000-6060.2023.257

• Regional Development • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Spatiotemporal evolution and its affecting factors of urban-rural income gap at the city-level scale in China

JIANG Yuekun(),SHI Pengjuan()   

  1. School of Finance and Economics, Qinghai University, Xining 810016, Qinghai, China
  • Received:2023-06-01 Revised:2023-08-15 Online:2024-01-25 Published:2024-01-26

Abstract:

Common prosperity is a fundamental requirement of socialism with Chinese characteristics, and reducing the urban-rural income gap is a practical challenge in achieving common prosperity and urban-rural integration. This study analyzes the spatial-temporal evolution of China’s urban-rural income gap using kernel density estimation, exploratory spatial data analysis, and other research methods based on urban-rural income ratio data from 366 urban research units between 2012 and 2021. Furthermore, a geographical-weighted regression model is used to explore the spatial differentiation of various factors influencing the urban-rural income gap across different regions in China. The results show that: (1) From 2012 to 2021, the urban-rural income gap in China gradually reduced, and the relative difference in the urban-rural income gap among cities also reduced. (2) Low-value areas of the urban-rural income gap are mainly distributed in the southeast coastal areas, along with a few cities in Heilongjiang Province and Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. In contrast, high-value areas are mainly distributed in the Yunnan-Guizhou mountain area, the Tibet Autonomous Region, and some cities in the middle and upper reaches of the Yellow River. Overall, the urban-rural income gap in China exhibits a spatial distribution pattern, which is high in the west and low in the east, high in the north and low in the south, and high in the middle and low at both ends. (3) At the city-level scale, the urban-rural income gap in China exhibits a significant spatial positive correlation, and the cities with large and small urban-rural income gaps tend to cluster. (4) Regional heterogeneity exists in the influencing factors, emphasizing the need for tailored policies to address the urban-rural income gap and promote coordinated urban-rural development based on local conditions in all regions.

Key words: urban-rural income gap, common prosperity, spatial distribution pattern, spatiotemporal evolution, influencing factors