Work

The Effect of Agricultural Environmental Total Factor Productivity on Urban-Rural Income Gap: Integrated View from China

Year: 2020

Type: article

Abstract: Agricultural total factor productivity (TFP) provides a measure of the efficiency of agricultural production, allowing for comparisons across time, countries and regions. Agricultural environmental total factor productivity not only considers the desired output, but also takes resource efficiency and environment friendliness into account. Using the Data Envelopment Analysis with slack-based measure (DEA-SBM) super-efficiency model, this research measures the agricultural environmental total factor productivity (ETFP) of 30 provincial regions in China. Based on the measurements, the spatial autoregressive (SAR) model and estimation method were used to empirically test the effects on the agricultural ETFP for the urban-rural income gap. The results indicated that from 2001 to 2017, agricultural ETFP in China grew at an average annual rate of 4.3%, and the technological progress and technical efficiency after decomposition increased by 3.6% and 5.9% respectively. The findings indicated that the agricultural ETFP growth has not only failed in narrowing urban-rural income gap, but further widened it. Changes in industrial structure, upgrades in market demand and increases in human capital have instigated the ever alarming urban-rural income gap. Indeed, the economic acceleration has a restraining effect on the urban-rural income gap.

Source: Sustainability

DOI: 10.3390/su12083327

Authors: Qiang Li, Xiaohang Wu, Yi Zhang, Yafei Wang

Institutions: Chongqing University of Education, Chongqing Normal University

Language: English

Topic: Efficiency Analysis Using DEA

Subfield: Management Science and Operations Research

Field: Decision Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDGs: Reduced inequalities, No poverty, Zero hunger

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $1,901