Has Inclusive Finance Narrowed the Income Gap between Urban and Rural Areas? An Empirical Analysis Based on Coastal and Noncoastal Regions' Panel Data

Abstract

Li, Y.; Zhong, Q., and Xie, L., 2020. Has inclusive finance narrowed the income gap between urban and rural areas? An empirical analysis based on coastal and noncoastal regions' panel data. In: Gong, D.; Zhang, M., and Liu, R. (eds.), Advances in Coastal Research: Engineering, Industry, Economy, and Sustainable Development. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 106, pp. 305–308. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208.By lowering the threshold effect of financial services, inclusive finance has eliminated financial exclusion and improved the opportunities for rural economic entities to obtain financial services and to increase their income, which has an important impact on improving the pattern of the urban-rural income gap. By constructing the inclusive financial development index and using the coefficient of variation method, this paper measures the development level of inclusive finance in 30 provinces of China from 2010 to 2016 and uses panel data to analyze the impact of the inclusive financial development level on the urban-rural income gap. The conclusions reveal that the development level of inclusive finance shows great regional differences and that the development level of inclusive finance in coastal regions is higher than that of noncoastal regions. Inclusive financial development has a significant impact on narrowing the income gap between urban and rural areas.