城镇化的共同富裕效应

As in the development history of all countries or regions that have successfully crossed the middle-income trap, urbanization or industrialization is an important engine of China's economic growth miracle because it can lead to a rapid increase in total factor productivity. The famous Kuznets curve implies that urbanization or industrialization can bring about a widening of the income gap between the rich and the poor during the stage of economic take-off. In fact, the level of income inequality in China has climbed sharply since the mid-1980s and remains high today, which seems to suggest the impossibility of achieving economic growth and improving income distribution at the same time. The purpose of this article is to analyze the distribution (i.e., “common”) and growth (i.e., “prosperity”) effects of urbanization and to provide a scientific basis for exploring the goals, paths, and policy initiatives to achieve common prosperity. The results show that urbanization not only significantly increases productivity, but also boosts domestic investment and consumption demand, thus contributing to the dual circulation and economic growth. At the same time, urbanization is the fundamental solution to solve the "issues of agriculture, farmers and rural areas" and to eliminate urban-rural segmentation, which is an important component of the income gap between the rich and the poor in developing countries, especially in China. Accordingly, the study concludes that urbanization and citizenization can be actively promoted to obtain the effect of both economic growth and improvement of income distribution, which is the only way to promote common prosperity in China.