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Since 2017, China's digital economy has accounted for more than 30% of the country's GDP. The digital economy has become the main driving force of China's economic development. Moreover, the digital economy has also changed the traditional modes of production and distribution between urban and rural areas. This paper aims to explore the influential mechanism of digital economy infrastructure (DEI) on the urban-rural income gap (URIG).

By analyzing the theoretical model of the URIG, this paper constructs a theoretical analysis framework and clarifies the key roles of rural land circulation (RLC) and resident population urbanization (RPU) in the relationship between DEI and the URIG.

The DEI can effectively reduce the URIG; the regression coefficient (RC) was −0.109. The reduction effect is mainly reflected in: 1) the wage income gap between urban and rural residents (RC = −0.128) and 2) the net property income gap of urban and rural residents (RC = −0.321). Also, for the spatial spillover effect, the path effect of “DEI – RLC – URIG” is almost equal to the path effect of “DEI – RPU – URIG”; for the local effect, the path effect of the former is far smaller than the latter. Moreover, when the RPU reaches the threshold of 86.29%, the DEI will expand the URIG (RC = 0.201).

This paper proposes a theoretical framework for the impact of DEI on the URIG, explores the mechanism of RLC and RPU in the DEI and URIG and enriches the theory of traditional research on URIG.

This paper aims to explore the factors that affect housing prices as per Chinese articles indexed in the Chinese Science Citation Database (CSCD). There were different foci regarding what drove housing prices in China in Chinese articles, and international journal articles in English. As most previous English articles only threw light on international research, it motivated the researchers to systematically review Chinese literature’s factors that affected housing prices in China.

This paper reviewed housing price research articles indexed in the two largest Chinese academic research databases: the CSCD and China Knowledge Infrastructure Engineering Database (CNKI.NET). It systematically collected the data and adopted descriptive analysis techniques and synthesis.

This research reviewed the literature published from 2015 to 2020 and revealed some unique factors affecting China's housing prices. For example, research focused on administrative aspects such as macroeconomic regulation and control (often known as macro control). Authors of Chinese articles suggested that the two-child policy affected housing prices, which differed from that in the English journal articles. The research results implied that researchers should read top Chinese journals on top of good international journals when they study China's real estate market in the future.

Because the domestic real estate market started late, domestic real estate transaction data and real estate-related statistics are more difficult to obtain. The research is mostly based on the relationship between supply and demand, government policy and individual consumer factors, and the sample has a short time span.

As China is a planned economy country, administrative factors are one main factor that affects the housing price. There were a significant number of articles in Chinese that considered this factor to be the main driver of the real estate price. It included government investment and macro-control, i.e. direct government intervention to cool down the overheated economy. Yet, there are few English articles that threw light on this factor including the commodity housing supply and government behaviour that affect housing price. The second-child policy, which is unique in China, also played an important role in the determination of the housing price. In the articles indexed in CNKI, the second-child rate, willingness to have a second child or having a second child were mentioned in the Chinese articles but not the English ones.

In this paper, the economic, social, administrative and environmental factors were summarised, which basically covered all the factors affecting housing prices. The administrative factors were a special group of factors that affect the housing price because of the country's planned economic system. Secondly, it provided useful information to real estate development enterprises in China. To make a correct investment and management decision, real estate development enterprises must understand the actual situation and possible problems of the industry. In this study, we analysed the research literature on the real estate industry in China for the period from 2015 to 2020 one by one and determined the influencing factors of the housing price, which provided references for effective cost control. Thirdly, it allows the public to understand and grasp the real estate industry. As the housing price has been continuously increasing, the public pays increasing attention to the real estate industry. Through the literature analysis of the impact of real estate prices, this paper revealed the elements of house price expenses, which makes it convenient for ordinary people to understand the real estate industry.

This study allows foreigners who do not know Chinese to know more about factors that drove housing prices from the Chinese perspective. It also provides insights to overseas developers who wish to enter the property market in China. The results can be generalised to other non-English-speaking real estate research.

The purpose of this paper is to estimate the real urbanization level in China so as to provide a measurement that can be compared with the international level.

Taking into consideration 300m residents living in the administrative towns (300m residents here are referred to the population in administrative towns, including those in all counties), the gap between the urbanization rate of China and that of the world average becomes much wider.

China, however, implements the administrative system of government at the central, provincial, municipal, county and township levels. By city, it means the jurisdiction at and above the level of county, which includes the municipality directly under the central government, prefecture-level municipal and county. By town, it means the jurisdiction below the level of county (including the Chengguan Town, or capital town, where the county government is located) and exclusive of rural townships.

China has witnessed rapid development for 40 years since the reform and opening up in 1978. Nowadays, China has already stepped into the period of post-industrialization, with its urbanization rate (UR) of permanent population reaching 58.58 percent. However, on the basis of registered population, the UR is 43.37 percent, which is not only far below the average level of 81.3 percent in high-income countries, but also lower than the average of 65.8 percent in upper middle-income countries which are comparable to China in terms of per capita income. (The classification of state income level is based on the data of national income per capita and division standards in 2016 from the World Bank, in which annual revenue per capita in high-income countries reaches over US$12,736 and that in upper middle-income countries between US$4,126 and US$12,735.)

This study aims to clarify the impact of agriculture–tourism integration (ATI) on in situ urbanization (ISURB) of rural residents, to highlight the role of industrial integration in the process of China's ISURB and to provide industrial integration suggestions for promoting urbanization quality in Chinese counties.

By sorting out the panel data of China's 1868 counties, the evaluation index system of ISURB was constructed. Difference in difference (DID) and spatial Durbin-difference in difference (SDM-DID) model is used for estimate the relationship between ATI and ISURB.

First, ATI can improve ISURB by 11.4% higher than other regions. Second, theoretical analysis model of ATI on ISURB is constructed from four aspects of “drive–push–pull–block.” The results show that ATI can promote ISURB by increasing upgrading of rural industries, rural employment demand and income capacity, whereas ATI may inhibit ISURB by reducing farmland. Third, considering changes in institutional, hard and soft factors, rural collective economy, information infrastructure and digital finance all promote positive impact of ATI on ISURB. Fourth, ATI will produce spillover effects on ISURB in neighboring regions, which is more pronounced in the central and western regions.

This study lacks quantification of ATI, so future studies are encouraged to further quantify ATI at the county level.

This study has policy significance for constructing ATI demonstration counties and promoting ISURB in China's counties.

It is of great practical value to promote China's ISURB. By stimulating ATI, it can improve income and employment capacity of rural residents and stimulate ISURB of China.

This study enriches the theoretical and practical research on industrial integration behaviors during the process of ISURB.

1. Use county data to measure in situ urbanization (ISURB)

2. Agriculture–tourism integration (ATI) can increase ISURB

3. Constructs a “drive-push-pull-block” model to explain the influence mechanism

4. Use spatial Durbin-difference in difference (SDM-DID) models

5. Consider collective economy, rural information infrastructure and digital finance

Use county data to measure in situ urbanization (ISURB)

Agriculture–tourism integration (ATI) can increase ISURB

Constructs a “drive-push-pull-block” model to explain the influence mechanism

Use spatial Durbin-difference in difference (SDM-DID) models

Consider collective economy, rural information infrastructure and digital finance

The growth of the Chinese economy has resulted in a significant increase in construction and demolition waste (CDW), and regional differences in CDW generation are gradually increasing. The purpose of this study is to investigate the regional differences in CDW generation and the driving factors that influence CDW generation in different areas of China. To provide a systematic advisement for local governments to select the appropriate policy, reduce CDW generation.

The generation of CDW was calculated by region, based on the area estimation method, from 2005 to 2018. The relationship between CDW generation and economic development, and the driving factors of CDW generation in different regions of China, was investigated using the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) model and the STIRPAT theoretical model.

CDW generation of China increased at the average annual growth rate of 10.86% from 2005 to 2018. The main areas of CDW generation were concentrated in the eastern and central regions, while the proportion of CDW generation in the northeast region decreased gradually, and the changes varied significantly across different regions. The EKC between CDW generation and economic development was established for the whole country, North China, Northeast China, East China, Central South China, Southwest China and Northwest China. Three main factors based on the STIRPAT theoretical model were identified and explained into a framework to reduce CDW generation. The results provided a useful theoretical basis and data support guide for devising effective policies and regulations for the Chinese context.

The findings from this study can ultimately support policymakers and waste managers in formulating effective policies for waste management strategies and CDW-specific legislation. Additionally, it can help the coordinated reduction of CDW generation across regions in China and can support construction enterprises (in their development strategies), similar developing economies and foreign firms planning to operate in China.

This study contributes to the field through the STIRPAT model on driving factors of CDW generation in the Chinese context, in different regions.

The rate of urbanization and its implications in post‐Mao China have been underestimated in most recent studies on China’s urbanization as they have excluded the rising urban floating population. Making use of recently available floating population survey data assesses the significance of China’s urban floating population and its socio‐economic consequences and suggests remedial measures to control its flow. Finds that the floating population caused China to experience one of the highest urban population growths among the developing countries. The floating population has increased rural‐urban labour mobility and helped to eliminate the dualistic nature of Chinese society. But it has also caused oveer‐urbanization and environmental pollution and created certain social problems. To control the flow of the urban floating population, argues that the government should increasingly rely on indirect market‐based control mechanisms.

Examines China’s population movement since the 1980s. The analysis tackles two types of migration: permanent with corresponding transfers of the household registration, and temporary without such transfers. The study finds that, while the reform has brought about a proliferation of temporary migrants, numbers of permanent migrants have been rather stable. Of temporary migrants, an increasing proportion has been made up by urban residents. Temporary migrants as a whole are more likely to conduct inter‐provincial migration than their permanent counterparts. Coastal provinces and a few northwest provinces have been the favored destinations for temporary migrants. Cities, especially large cities, are preferred by both permanent and temporary migrants. The attraction of towns has been weak and tended to decline. The findings suggest that the reform has not led to a significant change in the formality of permanent migration. The large‐city oriented flow of the overall migration has been contrary to the state urbanization strategy which prioritizes the development of small cities and towns.

This paper aims to answer the following questions concerning rural‐to‐urban labor migration in China: What is the impact of discrimination against non‐Hukou in urban public service provision? Will such discrimination disappear in the future within the current policy‐making framework? What is the result of such an endogenous policy change as far as urbanization and economic growth are concerned?

The authors build a theoretical model of rural‐urban migration, taking into account the cost of social conflict due to discrimination against urban non‐Hukou in local public service. The possibility of endogenous policy change is also considered by numerical simulation.

The authors prove that, in the early stage of urban economic growth when the losses of potential conflicts are relatively small, the exclusive urban public service provision may be beneficial to them, but the losses under such unequal public service provision policy increase in the process of urban growth, and after a certain stage of development, opening public service access equally to the immigrants will be a better choice, even if only the natives' utility is considered. Such an endogenous policy change not only decreases the within‐city inequality and conflicts, but also advances the urbanization and urban economic growth.

The authors only consider two extreme cases of local public service provision, that is, the urban non‐Hukou residents have equal access to public service or they are totally not entitled. The possibility of partial access to local public service is not considered in the model.

The authors investigate impact of social conflicts on within‐city inequality, urbanization as well as urban economic growth due to unequal social public service within urban residents. The model also shows an endogenous policy change during rural‐urban labor migration.

This paper aims to evaluate the stage and level of Henan province urbanization and provide basis for decision making.

At first, build the evaluation index system which includes 17 indexes in four classes so that can reflect the level of urbanization development of the entire region comprehensively. Then build the gray clustering model based on set pair. On this basis, the paper evaluates the urbanization process in Henan province. In order to get a clear understanding of the urbanization level in Henan province, the paper selects several typical provinces and compares them with Henan province in urbanization process.

The results show that the urbanization level in Henan province belongs to the general level; there is a gap in urbanization process between Henan province and other advanced provinces.

The paper put forward a method to evaluate the urbanization process in Henan province and get a clear understanding of the urbanization level in Henan province.

The paper combines the set pair analysis and the gray fixed weight cluster method based on triangular whiten weight function, which can avoid the defect that the assessment result is too vague and the difference is not significant.

This paper studies the political economy of the endogenous urban–rural divide in two dimensions: labor market and provision of public goods.

This paper gives a dual-sector model endogenously depending on the consumption of public goods (club goods), the number of rural–urban migrants and the tax rate (transfer payments).

According to the research findings in this paper, the constraints on the participation of rural residents portray the rural residents' bargaining power, and in the game between the urban elites and the rural residents, tax rates depend on the preferences of the urban elites and the constraints urban elites and the rural residents jointly face. Therefore, the urban elites have to set tax rates deviating from the most preferred ones. The model in this paper can explain a series of empirical findings and yield new theoretical findings for empirical testing.

Significantly, the paper finds that the increase in agricultural productivity will lead to industrialization, accompanied by the disintegration of the dual-sector model. However, though the increase in industrial productivity can accelerate industrialization, it will further expand the urban–rural divide.