Journal Article

Influence of Transportation Accessibility on Urban-rural Income Dis-parity and Its Spatial Heterogeneity

HUANG Xiaoyan, KANG Chenchen, TANG Junqing, YIN Chun

2024

Overview

Transportation accessibility has been treated as an important means of reducing the urban-rural income disparity.However,only a few studies have examined the effects of different types of transportation accessibility on urban-rural income disparity and their spatial heterogeneity.Based on data from 285 prefecture-level(and above)Chinese cities in 2000,2005,2010,2015,and 2020,this study uses spatial econometric models to examine how highway accessibility and railway accessibility influence the urban-rural income disparity and to identify their spatial heterogeneity.The result reveals that highway accessibility and railway accessibility have'core-periphery'ring-like circle structures.The urban-rural income disparity exhibits strong spatial clustering effects.Both highway accessib-ility and railway accessibility are negatively associated with urban-rural income disparity,and the former having a greater effect size.Moreover,there is a substitution effect between highway accessibility and railway accessibility in the whole sample.Furthermore,these associations differ in geographic regions.In the central region,highway accessibility is more important in reducing the urban-rural in-come disparity,but its effect is weakened with the increase of railway accessibility.In the western region,railway accessibility has a lar-ger effect on narrowing the urban-rural income disparity,and this effect is strengthened by the increase of highway accessibility.We conclude that improving transportation accessibility is conducive to reducing the urban-rural income disparity but its effect is spatial het-erogenetic.Highways and railways should be developed in a coordinated manner to promote an integrated transport network system.

• Publisher: Northwest Land and Resources Research Center,Global Regional and Urban Research Institute,Shaanxi Normal University,Xi'an 710119,China%School of Resource and Environmental Sciences,Wuhan University,Wuhan 430079,China,International Institute of Spatial Lifecourse Health(ISLE),Wuhan University,Wuhan 430079,China%School of Urban Planning and Design,Shenzhen Graduate School,Peking University,Shenzhen 518055,China,Key Laboratory of Earth Surface System and Human-Earth Relations of Ministry of Natural Resources of China,Shenzhen Graduate School,Peking University,Shenzhen 518055,China