The Impact of Economic Transformation and Public Services in New-Type Urbanization on Rural-Urban Income Gaps in Western China

Abstrak

Promoting urbanization construction with county towns as an essential carrier was a significant decision made by the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, marking a historic shift in China’s New-Type Urbanization strategy. Based on panel data from 176 counties in 21 cities in western China from 2013 to 2022, this paper empirically examines the heterogeneous effects of New-Type Urbanization on the urban-rural income gap at the county and city levels by developing a comprehensive index system for New-Type Urbanization developments. The results show that: (1) whether at the county or the city level, the construction of New-Type Urbanization significantly contributes to narrowing the urban and rural residents’ income gap; (2) based on the comparative analysis of the county and city levels, it was found that taking the county as the basic unit to promote New-Type Urbanization development has more advantages in narrowing the income gap; (3) compared with city districts, promoting New-Type Urbanization construction in county towns is more beneficial for narrowing the urban-rural income gap.