Given China＇s dual urban-rural structure, this paper employs the Theil index for measuring and depicting China＇s urban-rural income disparity and its characteristics. Furthermore, this paper specifies a nonlinear th...Given China＇s dual urban-rural structure, this paper employs the Theil index for measuring and depicting China＇s urban-rural income disparity and its characteristics. Furthermore, this paper specifies a nonlinear threshold cointegration model to reveals a nonlinear relationship between the urban-rural income gap and real economic growth over a long period since reform and opening up in China. Our results show that the regime switch of the long-term nonlinear threshold relationship takes place at the 0.100 （threshold value） of the Theil index. From 1978 to 1991, the long-term effect of the urban- rural income disparity on China＇s economic growth was positive; between 1992 and 1999, there was a smooth transition to a negative effect; and from 1999 on, the negative effect has been increasing year by year. Income disparity now has the effect of retarding China＇s real economic growth.展开更多
基金This paper is financially supported by the National Science Foundation of China, Grant 70571026.
文摘Given China＇s dual urban-rural structure, this paper employs the Theil index for measuring and depicting China＇s urban-rural income disparity and its characteristics. Furthermore, this paper specifies a nonlinear threshold cointegration model to reveals a nonlinear relationship between the urban-rural income gap and real economic growth over a long period since reform and opening up in China. Our results show that the regime switch of the long-term nonlinear threshold relationship takes place at the 0.100 （threshold value） of the Theil index. From 1978 to 1991, the long-term effect of the urban- rural income disparity on China＇s economic growth was positive; between 1992 and 1999, there was a smooth transition to a negative effect; and from 1999 on, the negative effect has been increasing year by year. Income disparity now has the effect of retarding China＇s real economic growth.
