关键词: 城市化, 城乡差距, 经济增长, 面板单位根, 面板协整

Abstract: This paper established a panel co-integration model based on the provincial panel data from 1987 to 2006, to explore the long relationship between the urbanization, urban-rural income gap and economic growth in China. The results show that, the urban-rural income gap in China presents clear periodic volatility, but the trend of the gap is continuing widening. There is a long-term stable panel co-integration relationship between the level of urbanization, urban-rural income gap, and the economic growth in China. Generally speaking, urbanization plays a significant role in narrowing the urban-rural income gap, but the urban-rural income gap is not conducive to economic growth, there are significant regional differences in both effects above. This article concludes that, doing a good job in the household registration system reform in the process of promoting urbanization, adjust measures in the issues of income distribution according to local conditions is conducive to fundamentally narrow the urban-rural income gap and change the urban-rural income gap’s restraining effect to economic growth.

Key words: Urbanization, The urban-rural income gap, Economic growth, Panel unit root, Panel co-integration