Does High-Speed Railway Influence Convergence of Urban-Rural Income Gap in China?

Weidong Li, Xuefang Wang and Olli-Pekka Hilmola
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Weidong Li: School of Economics and Management, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing 100044, China
Xuefang Wang: School of Economics and Management, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing 100044, China
Olli-Pekka Hilmola: Industrial Engineering and Management, LUT Kouvola, LUT University, Prikaatintie 9, FIN-45100 Kouvola, Finland

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 10, 1-14

Abstract: Transportation is an important factor affecting the balance of regional economic pattern. The construction of high-speed railway enhances the mobility of population, capital, technology and information resources between urban and rural areas. Will it further affect the income gap between urban and rural areas? Based on the nonlinear time-varying factor model, this paper analyzes the convergence of urban-rural income gap with the angle of high-speed railway. After rejecting the assumption of overall convergence in the traditional four economic regions, three convergence clubs of urban-rural income gap were found. For these ordered logit regression model is used to explore the initial factors that may affect the formation of “convergence club”. Empirical results show that the construction of High-speed railway has effectively narrows the urban-rural income gap in China, but it is not the cause of the formation of the three convergence clubs. The convergence effect of High-speed railway on the urban-rural income gap in China is still relatively weak.

Keywords: high-speed railway; income gap; club convergence; nonlinear time-varying factor model (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

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