The Equalization Gap of Basic Public Services Supply in China:An Empirical Study on Education,Health Care and Social Security

The equalization of basic public services which helps to meet people’s ever-growing needs for a better life is an important component of the supply-side structural reform under the new normal.This paper constructs the mechanism model and index of basic public services equalization,measures the equalization of education,health care and social security in China during the period of 2005-2016,and empirically tests the contributory factors with regional panel data.It is found that the equalization of basic public services has not been significantly improved by the last 12 years of urbanization;people tend to seek high-end consumption beyond basic public services with the increasing per capita disposable income;while the population structure and the gap between urban and rural areas constitute the main impediments,local governments’revenues and fiscal efficiency can significantly improve the equalization of basic public services.Therefore,the key to the supply-side structural reform of public services lies in enhancing the matching capability of public services in urbanization,reducing the consumption gap between urban and rural public services,and improving the efficiency of government’s public services expenditure.

Empowerment of Common Prosperity through Digital Economy: Pathways and Policy Design

China’s entry into common prosperity coincides with digital economy at the same period. As China gradually enters the digital era, the common prosperity is bound to rely on the digital economy, and both have a strong fit. This paper analyzes the realization path of common prosperity from the perspective of digital economy, showing that digital economy can promote not only the general growth of macro economy, namely, “making the cake bigger,” but also regional industrial decentralization, urban and rural coordination and the construction of a unified national market, which is conducive to balanced growth, namely, “dividing the cake.” Moreover, it can make up for the shortage of public services, improve the service capacity of the government, make digital infrastructure more adequate and balanced, and accelerate the equalization of basic public services. Meanwhile, digital economy may also lead to structural unemployment of labor force and other problems. Therefore, it is necessary to maximize its strengths and avoid its weaknesses in policy design so as to achieve the result with less efforts and promote the cause of common prosperity in a sustained and steady way.

Enriching Farmers through Sharing: Improving People’s Livelihood and Well-Being in the Modernization of Agriculture and Rural Areas in China

Shared development is an important means by which to improve people’s livelihood and well-being in the new era. During the 13th Five-Year Plan period (2016–2020), China has made great achievements in the three major aspects of targeted poverty alleviation through industrial development, development of special rural areas, and equalization of urban and rural infrastructure and basic public services. In addition, the important experience of multi-agent participation, multi-mode guidance, and multi-line promotion has been accumulated in the individual, regional and urbanrural dimensions. However, there remain some deficiencies, such as low policy efficiency, poor matching ability, and prominent structural problems. At the beginning of the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021–2025), the task of enriching farmers through sharing has been faced with many challenges, such as major changes in the focus of poverty governance, greater numbers of restraints on the development of special rural areas, and heavy responsibilities of equalizing urban and rural infrastructure and basic public services. Therefore, it is necessary to acquire a profound understanding of the new development concept, and to continuously enrich farmers through sharing in terms of accelerating the improvement of the institutionalized poverty reduction system in the new era, actively building a green development system of agriculture and animal husbandry in special rural areas, and striving to create a fair and complementary urban and rural infrastructure and basic public service system.