Urban expansion and the urban–rural income gap: empirical evidence from China

Zhong, S., Wang, M. , Zhu, Y., Chen, Z. and Huang, X. (2022) Urban expansion and the urban–rural income gap: empirical evidence from China. Cities, 129, 103831. (doi: 10.1016/j.cities.2022.103831)

Abstract

Developing countries tend to exhibit evident urban–rural income divergence as urban areas rapidly expand into adjoining land. However, Western-centric urban theories and studies of spatial inequality have not paid sufficient attention to the connection between income divergence and urban expansion. This paper employed a panel quantile regression model to investigate this relationship in 220 prefecture-level Chinese cities in 2006–2014. To identify potential spatiotemporal effects, we conducted additional robustness checks using the spatial Durbin model and geographical and temporal weighted regression. The results show that a 1 % expansion of urban land decreases the urban–rural income gap by 0.005 % to 0.011 %. This narrowing effect is particularly prominent in the eastern and central regions and in areas that are less urbanized overall. It also varies within regions that have a more pronounced difference between the lowest and highest quantiles in northeastern China and cities with urbanization rates of >50 %. Finally, we find evidence for an inverted U-shaped relationship between urban expansion and the urban–rural income gap. Our results entail suggestions for improved urban–rural development policies aimed toward greater integration and efficiency in urban expansion.

• Item Type: Articles
• Additional Information: Funding • Science Fund for Creative Research Groups of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (71921003) • Project of Jiangsu Province, China (BRA2020031) • Major Program of National Social Science Fund of China (17ZDA061) • University of Glasgow Reinvigorating Research Funding (201644-20) • University of Glasgow Research Enabling/Impact Generating Scheme (126438-01)
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Wang, Dr Mingshu

Creator Roles

Wang, M.: Conceptualization, Methodology, Investigation, Writing – original draft, Writing – review and editing, Funding acquisition

• Authors: Zhong, S., Wang, M., Zhu, Y., Chen, Z., and Huang, X.
• College/School: College of Science and Engineering > School of Geographical and Earth Sciences
• Journal Name: Cities
• Publisher: Elsevier
• ISSN: 0264-2751
• ISSN (Online): 1873-6084
• Published Online: 27 June 2022
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2022 The Authors
• First Published: First published in CIties 129: 103831
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons License