Measurement of the Income Difference of Rural Residents in Peri-Urbanized Areas and Its Influencing Factors: Evidence from Nanhai, Foshan, China

Zhenhai Xiang,Qifeng Yuan,Pengfei Ban

doi:10.3390/su12208382

Abstract

This study supplements research on peri-urbanized areas by introducing a quantitative analysis of rural income inequality, with particular attention being paid to geographical causes. It also contributes a community/village-scale case to the current knowledge of the quantitative analysis of rural income inequality, which is mainly based on the county, municipal and higher levels. A typical peri-urbanized area in the Pearl River Delta—namely, Nanhai District, Foshan City—was considered as an empirical case. Based on 10-year continuous data, from 2007 to 2016, we first analyzed the distribution and spatial autocorrelation between per-capita share dividend income (PCSDI) and per-capita net income (PCNI). Then, we used a Geographically Weighted Regression (GWR) model to explore the strength and direction of the relationship between PCSDI and the five selected driving factors. The results show that, during the study period, the rural income difference of PCSDI in Nanhai generally narrowed, whereas the income difference of PCSDI generally expanded, and the spatial distribution of PCNI was more unequal than that of the PCSDI. The GWR model shows that geo-location (GL) has the strongest impact on PCSDI, followed by the per-capita area of state-owned land (PCASOL); the density of the road coverage (DRC) and the density of the registered population (DRP) have the least effect on PCSDI. Except for the per-capita area of collective constructive land (PCACCL), which is a global variable, the correlation between the four other factors and PCSDI is geographically uneven.

Highlights

Since the Chinese economic reform, rural Chinese residents’ income has achieved rapid growth, and people’s living conditions have improved significantly
per-capita share dividend income (PCSDI) had a more rapid increment, that is, more than 2.5 times from 2124 RMB to 5346 RMB from 2007 to 2016, and had a 6.0% average annual growth rate, compared to per-capita net income (PCNI) increasing from 10,359 RMB to 22,276 RMB from 2007 to 2016 and achieving up to a 2.2 times increment and a 5.3% average annual growth rate
Construction land in Nanhai tends to be saturated, which aggravates the scarcity of construction land, leading to the rapid rise of land rent and the fast-paced growth of PCSDI concomitantly

Summary

Introduction

Since the Chinese economic reform, rural Chinese residents’ income has achieved rapid growth, and people’s living conditions have improved significantly. Due to the ambiguous land property rights, the value-added income of the land has become the focus of interest of all of the relevant subjects, causing conflicts among stakeholders such as local villagers, developers, and government departments [9,10,11], e.g., the income and housing inequality between local and foreign residents [12,13,14] All of these factors hinder the transition of peri-urbanized areas to full urbanization, thereby impeding their sustainable development in social, economic, and ecological aspects [15,16,17]

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Methods

Results

Conclusion