摘要
In this paper,using 1054 counties data of 15 provinces in Midwestern China from 2000 to 2007,we analyze the impact of transfer payments on urban-rural income gap.By choosing Develop-the-west Strategy that is a quasi-natural experiment and using regression of discontinuity of location,the result shows that local government in western China pays more transfer payments than in the central region,however,the income gap between urban-rural residents in the western region increases by 20%.The widening effects are robust in different bandwidth situation such as distance or latitude and longitude.Meanwhile,the mechanism analyses find that urban residents benefit more than rural residents from transfer payments.Therefore,we believe that transfer payments should be more targeted to invest in rural areas,at the same time,the central government should rationalize the structure of transfer payments as soon as possible,and correct the urban bias and structure bias of local fiscal expenditure.
