1、1The Impact of Rural Infrastructure Investment on Farmers IncomeAbstract. According to 2000-2009 provincial panel data， analysis of the impact of rural infrastructure investment on the farmers income is made in this thesis， and achieves the following conclusions： （1） The rural infrastructure investm
2、ent plays a promotion role on the income of the farmers on the whole， but the role is limited. （2） The energy infrastructure investment has a positive role in promoting farmers income， while social undertaking infrastructure investment pays an inhibiting role. And in addition to western， transportat
3、ion and communications infrastructure investment has a positive role in promoting farmers income. The Government， on one hand， should solve the problem of the lack of rural infrastructure investment funds based around the actual creation of a wide range of market investment and financing system， on
4、the other hand， it is also necessary for the overall planning of rural infrastructure investment， selecting the correct priority investment direction， and making the limited investment produce the greatest welfare effects. 2Key words： Rural Infrastructure Investment； Farmers Income； Panel Data Intro
5、duction Rural infrastructure is an important part of building a new socialist countryside， and also is an important material basis of the development of Chinese rural economy. A large number of domestic and international studies have shown that investment in infrastructure is conducive to promoting
6、the socioeconomic growth and incomes increase. However， for a long time， China is the relative lack of rural infrastructure investment. Although the absolute amount of rural infrastructure investment grows from 29.2 billion Yuan in 1981 to 575.35 billion Yuan in 2009， an increase of more than 197-fo
7、ld， but the proportion accounted for all infrastructure investment has been at a low level， which did not exceed 3% by 2008. The low proportion of rural infrastructure investment not only leads to a relative shortage of the total input， and also makes the growing gap between urban and rural infrastr
8、ucture development （Yongmin Luo， 2010） 1. Although the new rural construction has explicitly proposed to increase investment in rural infrastructure， but the country is still a lack of nurturing 3rural long-term planning. The rural infrastructure development remains slow， which has been unable to me
9、et Chinese rural economic development and farmers increasing requirements of the quality of life level. This article， based on the above considerations， study the impact of infrastructure investment on the farmers income in rural areas through the use of Chinese provincial panel data to， and will al
10、so analyze the impact of different types of infrastructure investment on the farmers income， to identify the “short board“ in investment in rural infrastructure， and put forward specific policy recommendations. Domestic and International Literature Review At the macro level， rural infrastructures im
11、pact on farmers income is mainly realized through two ways， known as the promotion of economic growth in rural areas and to change the income distribution. Indirect way of economic growth. For infrastructure investment in economic growth， the academic community has its in-depth research， and Straub
12、（2008） had a special summary on it. In all of the literature with a higher citation rate， 56% believe that the facility has a positive effect on economic growth 2. In the research on the investment in rural 4infrastructure and rural growth， Antle （1983） as early as according to the total agricultura
13、l output data of 47 developing countries and 19 developed countries in 1965， and adopting the aggregate production function method， studied transportation and communication infrastructure impact of the total agricultural output， and found that the agricultural output elasticity of infrastructure is
14、0.248 3. Fan， Hazell and Thor at （2000） also found that in China and India， the investment， especially irrigation， roads， electricity and communications infrastructure investment in the promotion of agricultural output growth is very significant， and these investments are marginal for agricultural p
15、roduction income changing with the change of the geographical environment. The domestic scholars Rui Li （2003） ， Qingiang Ju and Min Pang （2005） and Lunwu Liu （2006） and so on， have shown that the rural infrastructure investment has positive externalities in promoting economic growth and increasing
16、farmers income through using the C-D production function， the production function model， impulse response function and other different analysis tools. Direct ways of the income distribution. Effect on rural infrastructure investment distribution is mainly reflected in 5the lower income gap and pover
17、ty reduction. In reducing the income gap， Johnsons （2005） empirical research about China shows that Chinese rural infrastructure plays a key role in developing the rural non-agricultural industries， absorbing the surplus labor force and eliminating the gap between urban and rural areas. The domestic
18、 scholars research also shows that most rural infrastructure can increase the farmers income 4. With different data and methods， Hong Fang and Minghua Cao （2006） ， Yu Wang and Ruiyao Ying （2007） ， Junqiang Yan and Dasheng Li （2008） have found that the rural infrastructure investment has a significan
19、t positive effect on farmers income. In poverty reduction， Jahan and McCleery （2005） analyze direct channel and indirect channel. Through the direct channel， the poor can get better health and education services， cleaner energy and governmental protection for infrastructure investment. And indirect
20、channels include increased productivity， a decline in the cost of transportation and employment rise 5. XiaoyunLiu， etc. （2003） through the analysis of the survey data from Guizhou farmers， pointed that poor rural infrastructure investment has the positive role of farmers per capita income and famil
21、y consumer expense. 6There are some scholars who believe that rural infrastructure investment income and poverty reduction effect is conditional， and one of the key factors is the level of human capital. Through India rural data， Datt and Ravallion （1996） found the impact of infrastructure investmen
22、t in rural economic development is closely related to the initial conditions of the family. The higher the level of human capital （for example， a higher level of education， lower infant mortality rate） is， higher long-term consumption growth and faster poverty reduction in speed the families have. S
23、ome scholars do not agree with this view， such as Krongkaew and Kakwani （2003）. They believe that the investment in infrastructure in rural areas may have a negative impact on income distribution as a rural minority who has higher private endowment labor to obtain greater benefits from this investme
24、nt. The present research on China basically just overall analyze the impact of investment in rural infrastructure， without considering the functional differences between the different types of infrastructure investment as well as regional differences. Therefore， scholars proposed to increase investm
25、ent in rural infrastructure. It is difficult to put 7forward more specific policy recommendations. This study is to start from the different functions of the infrastructure investment and also considering regional differences factors， study the impact of different types of rural infrastructure inves
26、tment on the farmers income， to determine the priority of the different areas and different types of rural infrastructure investment order of development， making the limited investment produce the greatest welfare effects. Econometric Model Settings and Data Econometric models setting. Reference to
27、previous research， this article will make the model of examining the impact of rural infrastructure investment set to dynamic panel regression form （1）： In the form， ring refers to per capita net income of farmers and tinv refers to rural per capita investment in infrastructure. Natural values were
28、taken to prevent heteroscedasticity. X denotes other factors affecting the income of the farmers， including rural economic growth （Growth） ， the farmers level of human capital （Edu） ， the level of prices of agricultural products （Price） ， urbanization level （Urban） ， industry structure （Stru） ， the
29、degree of openness （Open） ， the degree of denationalization （Nonsta） and financial development level （Fd）. Subscript i 8and t denotes year t of province i， refers to the regional effects and refers to random disturbance term. The study of Datt and Ravallion （1996） showed that the differences in the
30、level of human capital will significantly affect rural infrastructure investment and farmers income growth. Therefore， we added the cross terms of the level of human capital and rural infrastructure investment further to test， see （2）： The represents a regional effect and is a random disturbance. If
31、 human capital affects the relationship between investment in rural infrastructure and farmers income， is less than 0， and is more than 0， that means the role investment in rural infrastructure plays in promoting the growth of farmers income is conditional. Only when the level of human capital excee
32、ds a certain value， the rural infrastructure investment will promote farmers income growth. To further analyze the impact of different types of rural infrastructure investment on the farmers income， rural infrastructure is divided into three categories， namely， energy infrastructure， transportation
33、and communication infrastructure， and social undertakings and infrastructure. We build econometric models （3）： 9The represents a regional effect， is a random disturbance term， nyinv refers to rural pjtinvpita energy infrastructure investment， jtinv refers to rural per capita transportation and commu
34、nions infrastructure the investment， and shinv refers to infrastructure investment per capita social undertakings in rural areas. To prevent heteroscedasticity， the above variables are used natural values. Variable interpretation and data sources. Among the variables involved in this article， rural
35、economic growth （Growth） is shown by the agriculture， forestry， animal husbandry and fishery GDP per capita and taking the logarithm. Farmers level of human capital （Edu） represents as the average years of schooling. The price level of agricultural products （Price） is represented by the price index
36、of agricultural products. The level of urbanization （Urban） is represented by the proportion of non-agricultural population. The industrial structure （Stru） stands for the proportion of tertiary industry. The degree of openness （Open） is represented by the proportion of GDP total imports and exports
37、. The degree of non-state （Nonsta） is represented by non-state-owned enterprise workers. The level of financial development （Fd） is represented by the balance of loans from financial 10institutions. In this paper， relevant measurement analysis is made depending on the 2000-2009 provincial panel data
38、. Due to the differences between the level of economic development of the four municipalities of Beijing， Tianjin and Chongqing and other provinces， and the serious lack of data of the Tibet Autonomous Region， samples in this study exclude the five provincial regions. Data for regional investment in
39、 rural infrastructure， rural per capita net income and the price index of agricultural products are from rural China Statistical Yearbook （2001-2010） ， and the average years of education of the calculated data are from China Population Statistics Yearbook 2001-2010 and China Statistical Yearbook， 20
40、00， using census data， a 1% sample survey data for other years， and the corresponding conversion. The data in this article directly exclude the impact of changes in the price level factors regarding the price level of 2000 as the base period. The estimated method. The econometric model in this thesis is to explain the variable rural economic growth （Growth） ， the farmers level of human capital （Edu） ， the level of urbanization （Urban） and industrial structure （Stru） and farmers income （Lnrin） may exist between indigenous and also contains unobservable effects and the lag of the
