Does urbanization affect the gap between urban and rural areas? Evidence from China

From the perspective of the threefold development of urbanization, namely, in terms of population, land and the economy, this paper studies the evolution characteristics of the multi-dimensional gap between urban and rural areas based on provincial panel data from 2000 to 2018 in China, using the Kernel Density Estimation and Fixed Effect Model. The study also quantitatively calculates the influence degree of population urbanization (PUR), industrial urbanization (IUR) and land urbanization (LUR) on the gap of the social economic system (SEC) and residents’ living system (RLS) between urban and rural areas. The results were as follows. (1) The overall gap between urban and rural areas (URG) in China has decreased, and urban and rural development is gradually becoming unbalanced in eastern, central and western China. (2) PUR was found effectively to narrow the SEC and RLS. IUR expanded the URG; IUR has also widened the RLS between the eastern provinces of China and the provinces in contact with central and western China. Meanwhile, LUR could effectively expand the SEC, especially in the eastern coastal areas. (3) With the development of urbanization, the gap between urban and rural financial investment, labor production remuneration, quality of life, and capacity to pay by means of transport will be narrowed. The key implication of these findings is that future relevant measures and policies should be formulated according to local conditions, in order to promote the implementation of rural economic development.