西部大开发有助于缩小西部地区的收入不平等吗——基于双倍差分法的经验研究

Can Western Development Program Help to Reduce Income Inequality in China's Western Region——An Empirical Study Based on the Difference in Difference Model

本文采用双倍差分法考察了西部大开发对中国西部地区收入不平等的影响效应及其作用机制。结果表明:西部大开发显著地缩小了中国西部地区的收入不平等,在选用衡量收入不平等的不同指标和控制其它影响因素后,这一结论依然稳健;通过进一步研究发现,西部大开发主要通过吸收外资、提高城市化水平和财政支农支出规模的途径来缩小西部地区的收入不平等。

The problem of income inequality has caused widespread concern, this paper inspects the effect of western development program on the income inequality in China＇ s western region and its mechanism by using the difference in difference method. We collect China＇ s 29 provincial panel data from 1995 to 2008 as our sample, and use the metering method of Generalized Methods of Moments （GMM） to have an empirical study. The empirical result shows that： western development program has significantly reduced income inequality in China＇ s western region, after using different measures of income inequality and controlling other influencing factors, this conclusion remains robust; According to the further research, the mechanism of western development program reduces income inequality in China＇ s western region is mainly by absorption of foreign capital, increasing the level of urbanization and the scale of the fiscal expenditure on supporting agriculture.