Identifying the Turning Point of the Urban–Rural Relationship: Evidence from Macro Data

• Author: Yue Du,Jiao Yan,Liangliang Gao
• Date: 01 January 2018
• Published date: 01 January 2018
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/cwe.12231

©2018 Institute of World Economics and Politics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences

China & World Economy / 106–126, Vol. 26, No. 1, 2018

106

*Liangliang Gao, Associate Research Fellow, Rural Development Institute, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences,

China. Email: gaoll@cass.org.cn; Jiao Yan (corresponding author), PhD Candidate, School of Economics

and Resource Management, Beijing Normal University, China. Email: yanjiao19900201@163.com; Yue Du,

Graduate Student, Graduate School of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, China. Email: 736347715@qq.com.

This paper is supported by the National Science Fund of China (No. 17BJY010); the Ministry of Education of

China (No. 16JZD024); the core project: “Agricultural Modernization” and the periodic achievement of the

Chinese Academy of Social Sciences Innovation Project: “Research on the Memberships of Rural Collective

Economic Organizations.” The authors gratefully acknowledge the National Bureau of Statistics of China for

provision of data.

Identifying the Turning Point of the Urban–Rural

Relationship: Evidence from Macro Data

Liangliang Gao, Jiao Yan, Yue Du*

Abstract

The urban and rural dual structure is a defining characteristic of the social and

economic development process in China. With rapid urbanization, remarkable

development of agriculture and rural modernization, the relationship between urban and

rural areas is undergoing signicant changes in China. Using macro data, we nd that

the relationship between urban and rural areas started to change in 2010. The transition

has mainly been reflected in three dimensions: agriculture, rural areas and farmers.

First, agricultural versatility has gradually increased, and the number of participants

in leisure agriculture and rural tourism has grown rapidly since 2010. Second, the rural

employment rate has risen gradually, and the share of rural employees in the tertiary

sector has grown markedly. Third, the urban–rural income ratio and consumption ratio

have begun to decrease, and the levels of consumption of domestic tourism by urban and

rural residents are becoming small.

Key words: agricultural diversification, urban–rural consumption ratio, urban–rural

income ratio, urban–rural relationship

JEL codes: J24, O18, Q12, R23, R58

I. Introduction

The urban and rural dual structure is a dening characteristic of the social and economic

development process in China. The urban–rural relationship plays a vital role in China.

©2018 Institute of World Economics and Politics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences

Turning Point of the Urban–Rural Relationship 107

Therefore, much research has been conducted on this topic. For example, Jing et al.

(2015) discuss four models of urban–rural relationships in the world; that is, the US

model of free flow and prioritization of urban areas, the Latin American model of

free flow and bias towards the urban areas, the Asian model of restrictions and bias

towards urban areas and the European model of free ow and urban–rural development.

Moreover, Jing et al. analyze the characteristics of the dierent stages of the evolving

urban–rural relationship since 1949. Duan et al. (2006) review the literature that has

been published on urban–rural relationships since 1949. Some scholars have studied the

evolution of the urban–rural relationship in China (Liu, 1996; Liu et al., 2015). Other

scholars have developed comprehensive evaluations of the urban–rural relationship by

constructing an index system to inspect the level of urban–rural interaction (Duan et al.,

2005; Duan et al., 2007; Wu et al., 2007; Zhang et al. 2008).

In recent years, with the rapid modernization of agriculture, further rural reform

and better conditions for people who return to their hometown and for migrant workers,

the urban–rural relationship has changed substantially. As previous literature has shown

(such as Liu, 2016), the term “urban–rural relationship” has changed from denoting one-

way dependence by the rural areas on urbanization to two-way interaction between rural

and urban areas. In 2017, the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China

released a rural rejuvenation strategy, emphasizing that the fundamental goal is urban–

rural integration. Therefore, it is important to rethink the urban–rural relationship, and to

develop new practical and theoretical approaches in this area of research. In this paper

we attempt to nd using macro data the turning point when rural areas no longer depended

on urbanization, but, rather, the relationship with urban areas was characterized more

by two-way interaction. Despite being foundational knowledge for the research of the

urban–rural relationship, this issue has not been researched extensively.

The present paper uses macro data to identify whether there was a turning point

in the urban–rural relationship from three dimensions: agriculture, rural areas and

farmers. The macro data are sourced from yearbooks of the China National Bureau

of Statistics from 1978 to 2015. Because dierent yearbooks use dierent variables

and certain data are missing, some of the variables start later than 1978 (around 1980,

1991 or 2005). Therefore, the present paper rst assesses the viewpoints and evidence

of studies published in recent years on the urban–rural relationship, and makes a

judgment on the turning point in the relationship between urban and rural areas.

Finally, the article concludes with strategies for providing a sustainable source of rural

revitalization.