Can Agricultural Industry Integration Reduce the Rural–Urban Income Gap? Evidence from County-Level Data in China

Xiaoli Chen, Zhefeng Huang, Chaoguang Luo and Zhineng Hu ()
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Xiaoli Chen: Department of Management Science and Data Science, Business School, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610064, China
Zhefeng Huang: Department of Management Science and Data Science, Business School, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610064, China
Chaoguang Luo: Department of Management Science and Data Science, Business School, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610064, China
Zhineng Hu: Department of Management Science and Data Science, Business School, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610064, China

Land, 2024, vol. 13, issue 3, 1-20

Abstract: The improvement in urban production efficiency has led to income distribution being skewed towards urban labor, thereby widening the urban–rural income gap. However, integration of the agricultural industry at the county level can accelerate the flow of production factors between industries. Therefore, this study evaluates the degree of agricultural industry integration at the county level using the entropy weight method and explores its impact on the urban–rural income gap, based on sample data from 1122 counties in China spanning from 2014 to 2021. The research findings reveal the following: (1) The fixed model demonstrates that enhancing agricultural industry integration can significantly narrow the urban–rural income gap; (2) The mediating model indicates that this narrowing effect can be achieved by improving the green total factor productivity of agriculture; (3) Regional heterogeneity analysis indicates that the impact of agricultural industry integration is more pronounced in the central region and main crop production areas; (4) The results of the spatial Durbin model demonstrate that agricultural industry integration also exhibits a significant positive spatial spillover effect on neighboring areas. The outcomes of this study contribute to enriching the research on agricultural industry integration for green and low-carbon agricultural development, further promoting the development of county-level agricultural industry integration, and providing valuable insights for other similar countries.

Keywords: agricultural green total factor productivity; biennial Malmquist–Luenberger; fixed effect; spatial spillover effects (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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