Influence of Rural Industrial Integration on Farmers’ Income in China

Abstract

Abstract Rural transportation infrastructure is an important foundation for rural economic development and plays an important role in the process of rural industrial integration to increase farmers’ income. Based on China’s inter-provincial panel data from 2014 to 2019, this paper classifies rural transportation infrastructure from the perspective of external connection level, and empirically analyzes the role of the scale, type, and structure of rural transportation infrastructure in the process of rural industrial integration to increase farmers’ income. It is found that in China, rural industrial integration is conducive to increasing farmers’ income. In the process of rural industrial integration to increase farmers’ income, the overall scale of rural transportation infrastructure has played a synergistic role; Different types of rural transportation infrastructure play different roles. Township-village transportation infrastructure mainly shows synergy, while city-township transportation infrastructure mainly shows substitution. Optimizing rural transportation infrastructure structure is conducive to strengthening rural industrial integration and increasing farmers’ income. When the ratio of township-village and city-township transportation infrastructure scale is less than 1.921, rural industrial integration fails to increase farmers’ income; When the ratio of rural-village and urban-rural transportation infrastructure is between 1.921 and 7.808, the promotion of rural industrial integration on farmers’ income increase begins to be significant; When the ratio of rural-village to urban-rural transportation infrastructure is greater than 7.808, the promotion of rural industrial integration on farmers’ income will further increase.