How Agricultural Socialized Services Pilot Policies Can Reduce the Urban-Rural Income Gap

The implementation of China’s Agricultural Socialized Services Pilot Policies is not only of great significance for increasing farmers’ income and narrowing the urban-rural income gap in China, but also contributes to the achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Using panel data of Chinese prefecture-level cities from 2012 to 2024, this paper empirically analyzes the impact, mechanism of action, and heterogeneous effects of China's Agricultural Socialized Services Pilot Policies on the urban-rural income gap. The research results show that: (1) China’s Agricultural Socialized Services Pilot Policies can indeed narrow the urban-rural income gap, and this conclusion remains valid after placebo tests and a series of robustness tests. (2) The policies mainly narrow the urban-rural income gap through two paths: promoting industrial structure upgrading and improving the urbanization level. (3) The impact of the policies on the urban-rural income gap presents an inverted “U”-shaped trend of first expanding and then narrowing, and the “gap-narrowing” effect has good sustainability. (4) The policies have a more significant inhibitory effect on the urban-rural income gap in central and western provinces, major grain-producing areas, and production-marketing balance areas of China. The research conclusions provide useful references for developing countries including China to develop agricultural socialized services.