Abstract
Attracted by the urban–rural income gap (URIG), a massive agricultural transfer population has flooded into cities and became a peri-urbanized population due to the restrictions of the household registration system. This trend eventually leads to the rising population peri-urbanization rate (PPUR), which is equal to the proportion of urban resident population with rural household registration in the total residents, and seriously affects the development of new-type people-oriented urbanization. The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of URIG on PPUR at the national and regional levels using the spatial exploration analysis and spatial Durbin model from the perspective of comparative economic interests. Empirical results revealed that PPUR had high spatial agglomeration, as indicated by high values in Eastern China and low values in Central and Western China. Moreover, the PPUR of most provinces in China was rising, dominated by intermediate values. At the national level, URIG promoted the increase of PPUR in the province, but inhibited the increase of PPUR in nearby provinces. Except for household registration, other control variables, such as industrial structure, fixed asset formation rate, infrastructure, medical resources and land-centered urbanization, also contributed to the PPUR in the province. At the regional level, the URIG of Central and Western China contributed to the increase of PPUR, whereas in Eastern China it inhibited the increase of PPUR. The strong correlation of URIG and PPUR calls for relevant policies for narrowing URIG and reducing PPUR.
Highlights
In 2019, China’s urbanization rate of permanent population reached 60.60%, whereas its urbanization rate of household registration population accounted for only 44.38% [1], indicating a great population peri-urbanization rate (PPUR) of 16.22%
Due to the restrictions of settlement policies, the speed of agricultural transfer populations (ATPs) from rural areas to urban areas is much faster than the ATP from agricultural to non-agricultural hukou, in which the growth of urbanization of permanentrate population (URPP) is faster than URHRP, that eventually leads to the gradual ascension of PPUR
Attracted by urban–rural income gap (URIG), massive ATP has flown into cities and became a peri-urbanized population, which affects the development of people-oriented urbanization in
Summary
In 2019, China’s urbanization rate of permanent population reached 60.60%, whereas its urbanization rate of household registration population accounted for only 44.38% [1], indicating a great population peri-urbanization rate (PPUR) of 16.22%. 200–300 million agricultural transfer populations (ATPs) floated between urban and rural areas, resulting in the annual migration tide. Apart from the household registration system, the existence of high housing prices and social security system in large cities hinder the in situ urbanization of these ATPs [2,3]. As Saunders [4] commented in ‘Arrival City’, the 21st century will probably be the last great migration wave of mankind. China released the National New-type Urbanization Plan (2014–2020), which emphasized the transformation from land-centered urbanization to people-centered urbanization [5,6]
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