Research on Urban-Rural Income Gap Influenced by Regional Urbanization and the Upgrading of Industrial Structure

Using the constant coefficient model with random effects as well as the error correction model, the paper empirically studies the urban-rural income gap influenced by urbanization and the upgrading of industrial structure, from the three levels of the East, Middle and West area, based on the Chinese provincial panel data of 1993-2012. Results show that there is a long-term equilibrium relationship among them. Urbanization helps to narrow the urban-rural income gap, and the impact is most significant in West area, followed by the East and Middle areas. While the upgrading of industrial structure will widen the urban-rural income gap and the impact have significant regional differences in East, Middle and West areas.