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This paper aims to test the causal relationship between urban-biased policy and urban-rural income gap and further examine the moderating role of government intervention.

Based on the provincial Government Work Reports and the long-term policy practice of implementing the target responsibility system, the authors construct a unique indicator of urban-biased policy in China. Further, applying the panel data of 30 Chinese provinces in 2003–2018, the authors explore the causal relationship between urban-biased policy and urban-rural income gap.

The results show that urban-biased policy has contributed to the widen urban-rural income gap in China, which supports Lipton's urban-biased hypothesis. Further research shows that the stronger the government intervention, the bigger the role of urban-biased policy in widening urban-rural income gap.

On the one hand, this study not only investigates the direct effect of urban-biased policy on urban-rural income gap, but also examines the moderating effect from the perspective of government intervention, which helps to enrich the relevant studies of urban-biased theory. On the other hand, the authors' findings provide the latest empirical evidence for urban-biased policy to widen urban-rural income gap and presents a reference and warning for China and other developing countries about balancing the relationship between equity and efficiency during economic development.

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.

The purpose of this paper is to shed light on the effect of high‐level human capital investment, using tertiary education as the proxy, on the urban‐rural income gap in China.

Using a panel dataset covering 28 provinces of China over the period from 1988 to 2007, this paper employs Hansen's method and two‐step GMM‐SYS estimator to estimate the threshold regression model and the dynamic fixed‐effect panel model, respectively.

The urban‐rural income gap is found to be related to high‐level human capital investment in an inverted U‐shaped pattern with respect to economic development level. The estimated threshold turning point is around 20,000 RMB GDP per capita. This estimate is sufficiently robust to model specifications and variants of the dependent variable.

The authors forecast that high‐level human capital investment could play a role in bridging the urban‐rural income gap at the national level by 2014, when China's GDP per capita assumes an annual growth rate of 7.5 percent.

This, it is believed, is the first research to find an inverted U‐shaped pattern for high‐level human capital investment and urban‐rural income gap nexus in China.

This paper aims to investigate the effect of rural-urban income gap on agricultural growth in China and its dynamics over time and across regions since reform and opening up.

Two types of indices are constructed to measure the rural-urban income gap: the intra-provincial index and the inter-provincial index. A provincial panel data from 1978 to 2010 and growth accounting method are used to estimate the size of the adverse effect of rural-urban income gap on agricultural growth in China.

The empirical results show that both indices of rural-urban income gaps are negatively associated with agriculture output, but the inter-provincial rural-urban income gap produces a larger adverse effect than the intra-provincial rural-urban income gap. Growth accounting analysis further shows that such adverse effects are decreasing over time and are larger in the central provinces. The results represent resource diversion effects of rural-urban income gap on agriculture.

This paper bridges the gap in existing literature on the relationship between sectoral income gaps and agricultural growth, which confirms Schultz's argument that agricultural activities are efficient even in developing countries and the rural resources diverted out by income gap are not surplus. The results imply that equalized rural-urban and regional policies are required to maintain sustainable agricultural growth in China.

Fast growth in China has led to significant improvement in people's living standards and average income. However, it has also brought about a huge rise in inequality. The purpose of this paper is to analyse regional and rural‐urban inequality using a few income and consumption indicators.

Data are collected from official statistical sources for all the Chinese provinces over 1978‐1995. Both parametric and non‐parametric methods are used to study the inequality between regions and between the rural and urban sub‐populations. The parametric approach is to test whether per capita incomes among provinces converged over time. The non‐parametric approach is the calculation and decomposition of the Gini coefficient by population sub‐group and income source.

The results show no evidence of growth convergence in per capita GDP, income and expenditure across provinces, but clear evidence of divergence in per capita rural (and urban) incomes and total expenditures. Three‐quarters of inter‐provincial income inequality are explained by inter‐rural/urban inequality. Inter‐provincial inequality explains more than half of rural inequality and less than half of urban inequality in most years.

This paper uses one of the most complicated datasets for the Chinese regions. It studies inequality using different economic indicators. It considers the different dimensions of inequality in China using two different approaches. The results are important for regional development policies.

Since the early 1970s up to recently Indonesia has shown a remarkable economic development process. As a result, in 1993 the country moved into the lower middle‐income group of countries (as classified by the World Bank). During the 1980s the country's economy had about 6 percent per annum average growth in gross domestic product (GDP) and it increased to about 7 percent a year in 1994 and 1995. In 1994 the country's per capita gross national product (GNP) reached an estimated US$884. It is expected that if Indonesia can sustain its present economic growth of 7 percent per year the country's per capita income would rise to over US$1,000 before the end of this century.

The paper is a synthesis of the 2017 Global Food Policy Report, and the purpose of this paper is to put into perspective the major food policy issues, developments, and decisions of 2016 and highlights challenges and opportunities for 2017.

The paper presents an overview of recent changes in the global context for food security and nutrition, and synthesizes research findings on major issues that arise in an urbanizing world. Based on its findings, the authors present policy recommendations and areas for future research for food security and nutrition.

Urbanization is linked with dietary changes to more energy-dense diets, and, the triple burden of malnutrition is increasing, particularly in rapidly urbanizing developing countries. Rural-urban linkages are key to improving food security and nutrition in both rural and urban areas, and traditional agricultural value chains linking farms to cities are undergoing a “quiet revolution.” Governance to enhance food security in the context of rapid urbanization faces various challenges in the institutional, administrative, and political realms, especially for the informal economy in developing countries. To address the unique challenges of urbanization, policies will need to create enabling environments, promote efficient and inclusive value chains, improve governance, and promote tailored programs. Research gaps that need to be filled include better, updated, and disaggregated data on food security and nutrition, as well as an enhanced understanding of enabling environments.

The paper highlights the increasingly relevant issue of rapid urbanization, especially in developing countries, for food security and nutrition, and synthesizes recent research in this area.

Much of extant literature on entrepreneurship ecosystems is geared toward mid- and large-size metropolitan areas, and small cities are considered disadvantageous without essential elements for the ecosystem. The purpose of this paper is to shed light on understanding how small cities can have vibrant entrepreneurship ecosystems.

This study conducted 42 semistructured interviews of entrepreneurs and supporters in small towns of Montana, USA. This study also supplemented with a survey of 178 firms.

Entrepreneurs in small cities enjoy dense support networks including experienced entrepreneurs, key business and civic leaders and elected officials. They also attend entrepreneurial events and establish connections with support organizations with a distance of 200 miles.

The cases in this paper demonstrate that small cities can have vibrant entrepreneurship ecosystems without urban diversity and agglomeration. That additionally means that we should not apply the theoretical framework developed with large urban areas to small cities and consider different models of development for small cities.