Influence on urban- rural income gap by city size

Using prefecture- level city data of China between year 1994 to 2011,based on the multi- dimensional calculations about the size distribution of cities,this essay adopts simultaneous equations to deal with endogeneity on the relation between city size distribution and the urban- rural income gap. The study finds that overall city agglomeration leads to the deterioration of the income gap between urban and rural areas;significantly regional differences lie in this effect. Tending to agglomerating in the big cities in the eastern and central areas can relief urban- rural income gap,but can worse urban- rural income gap in the western areas. The improvement of the level of urbanization and the degree of market can ease the urban- rural income gap. Local governments should consider regional differences and their endowments to take the optimized choice for urbanization development strategy.