URBANIZATION AND RURAL–URBAN CONSUMPTION DISPARITY: EVIDENCE FROM CHINA

Jing Li (), Tsun Se Cheong, Jianfa Shen () and Dahai Fu ()
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Jing Li: Department of Geography and Resource Management, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, N. T., Hong Kong
Jianfa Shen: Department of Geography and Resource Management, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, N. T., Hong Kong
Dahai Fu: #x2021;School of International Trade and Economics, Central University of Finance and Economics, 39 South College Road, Haidian District, Beijing, P. R. China

The Singapore Economic Review (SER), 2019, vol. 64, issue 04, 983-996

Abstract: The objective of this paper is to investigate the impacts of urbanization on influencing the rural–urban consumption disparity in China, a research gap which has not been bridged so far. Adopting a provincial dataset from 1997 to 2014, a generalized method of moments (GMM) estimator is employed to reveal the impact of urbanization on the ratio of per capita consumption expenditure of the urban households to the rural households, along with other socioeconomic variables. Empirical results show salient relationship between increasing urbanization ratio and declining rural–urban inequality. Significant impact of education costs on increasing the rural–urban inequality is also observed. Other factors that increase the disparity include foreign investment and gross regional product (GRP) indices. Industrial structure, costs of housing and health care are insignificant factors. The results of this study help in understanding China’s new urbanization development strategy in a better way.

Keywords: Urbanization; rural–urban disparity; consumption; regional inequality; China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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DOI: 10.1142/S0217590817450102

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