农村基础设施对收入不平等的影响研究——基于中西部5省218个村庄调查

摘要

中国的收入不平等问题不仅表现在城乡收入差距上,还体现于农村内部的收入不平等,后者与农村社会的和谐稳定密切相关.基于中西部5省(市、区)218个村的2009年、2011年与2013年三期调查数据,分析农村基础设施与农村收入不平等的关系,探讨农村基础设施对农村收入不平等的影响及其作用机制.结果表明,中西部农村基尼系数为0.38,接近收入分配状况的国际警戒线.在农村基础设施中,自来水、电力和集市普及率逐步提高,道路普及率增长迅速.同时,农村道路设施可显著缓解农村收入不平等状况,且空间计量分析验证了结果的稳健性.进一步研究发现,农村道路设施对于中等收入地区的收入分配效应显著,而在低收入和高收入地区并不明显.从作用机制来看,农村居民总体收入的增长以及在收入结构上农业收入的大幅提高是农村道路设施影响农村收入不平等的主要途径,且前者的作用更加明显.因此,对于现阶段基础设施以及经济状况仍较为薄弱的中西部农村,加大交通基础设施建设力度不仅有利于促进居民增收,也是改善农村收入分配的良好对策.%China's income inequality problem is not only reflected on the income gap between urban and rural areas, but also reflected in the income inequality within rural areas, which has a more direct influence on the harmony and stability of rural society. Based on a survey data of 218 villages in 5 provinces (province-level municipality) in mid-west China of 2009, 2011 and 2013, this paper analyses the relationship between rural infrastructure and income inequality and explores the corresponding impact mechanism. Results show that the overall Gini coefficient of mid-west rural areas is 0.38, which is approaching the international warning line of income distribution. Research also finds that the popularizing rates of water, electricity, market and especially roads increase gradually. Rural road facilities can significantly alleviate rural income inequality, and the spatial econometric analysis verifies the robustness of the results. In addition, results of further studies show that rural road construction have significant influences on income distribution in middle-income areas, but not significant in low and high income areas. From the operational mechanism perspective, the overall income level of rural areas and the increasing share of farming income are the main channels for the influences coming from rural road construction, with larger impacts from the overall income level. Therefore, for the current stage of mid-western rural areas where infrastructure construction is still relatively weak, increasing infrastructure construction investment, especially rural road construction is an effective countermeasure to increase the income of rural residents and to improve the situation of rural income distribution.