The Non-Linear Impact of Highway Improvements on the Urban–Rural Income Gap in Underdeveloped Regions: A Mixed-Methods Approach

Mengyi Cui, Ruonan Wang, Wei Ji and Fengtian Zheng ()
Additional contact information
Mengyi Cui: School of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development, Renmin University of China, Beijing 100872, China
Ruonan Wang: Research Institute for Ecological Civilization, Sichuan Academy of Social Sciences, Chengdu 610072, China
Wei Ji: School of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development, Renmin University of China, Beijing 100872, China
Fengtian Zheng: School of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development, Renmin University of China, Beijing 100872, China

Sustainability, 2025, vol. 17, issue 4, 1-32

Abstract: The vast urban–rural income gap (URIG) is a global challenge, particularly severe in underdeveloped regions. While the income-generating effects of transportation improvements are widely accepted, their income distribution effects remain controversial. This study focuses on national poverty-alleviated counties in central and western China, using a mixed-methods approach to quantitatively test the non-linear relationship between highway improvements and the URIG and qualitatively analyze the reasons behind the threshold effects of regional economic development levels. The main findings are as follows: first, regional economic development levels exhibit a double-threshold effect, with the impact of highway improvements shifting from widening to narrowing the URIG after surpassing the second thresholds. Second, inter-regional highways have a limited impact on narrowing the URIG, while intra-regional highways significantly reduce the URIG once crossing their thresholds, reflecting the distinct functions of different highway classes. Third, the heterogeneity analysis reveals that the impact of highway improvements on the URIG varies depending on the external environment surrounding residents, including both the indirect and direct environments. Fourth, from the perspective of rural labor transfer to non-farm employment, regional economic development levels create threshold effects in two ways: for local employment, they influence non-agricultural industry growth and job distribution following highway improvements, affecting rural laborers’ participation; for migrant employment, they impact human capital investment, influencing rural laborers’ skills and wage returns after highway improvements.

Keywords: highway improvements; urban–rural income gap; threshold effect; mixed-methods approach; underdeveloped regions; China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/4/1640/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/4/1640/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:17:y:2025:i:4:p:1640-:d:1592512

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().