The Impact of Labor Mobility on Urban-Rural Integration - A Case Study of Eastern China

Abstract

Urban-rural integration is an important means to maintain steady and high-quality economic growth at this stage. In order to better promote urban-rural integration, narrow the urban-rural gap, and achieve common prosperity for all people, this paper uses the entropy method to scientifically measure the development level of urban-rural integration in counties and regions in the eastern region from 2000 to 2022. Based on the survey data of the “China County Statistical Yearbook” and the China Economic Database, a scientific indicator of labor mobility is constructed, and a general equilibrium model of urban-rural integration is constructed, and then its impact effect and mechanism on urban-rural integration in counties and regions are analyzed. This study found that: First, with the passage of time, the level of urban-rural integration has basically shown a general upward trend. Among them, the counties around the Beijing-Tianjin area, the Yangtze River Delta area and the Pearl River Delta area have a higher level of regional urban-rural integration; second, labor mobility significantly promotes the improvement of the level of urban-rural integration development; third, the role of labor mobility in promoting the level of urban-rural integration development is achieved through two “engines”: human capital aggregation and labor participation rate improvement.