Development of financial intermediation and the dynamics of urban-rural disparity in China, 1978-1998

CHEN Y. P., LIU M. and ZHANG Q. Development of financial intermediation and the dynamics of urban-rural disparity in China, 1978-1998, Regional Studies. This paper focuses on the impacts of financial intermediation development on the urban-rural income disparity (URID) in China. Using a twenty-year province-level panel data set from 1978 to 1998, it is found that the change of URID may be explained by fiscal policy during the early reform period (1978-1989) and financial intermediates during the later reform period (1990-1998). In addition, it is shown that the direction the Kuznets effect, an inverted 'U'- shaped relationship between per-capita gross domestic product and URID, is sensitive to changes in government development policies. This study adds to the spatial economic inequality literature by clarifying the effects of urban-biased financial intermediation policy on the underlying dynamics of convergent and divergent effects on urban-rural inequality. © 2010 Regional Studies Association.