关键词: 城乡道路, 收入差距, 要素流动, 产业结构, 空间溢出

Abstract: Projects like“Village-to-Village Road Connectivity”, “County-to-County Expressway Access” and “One-Hour Traffic Circle” have profoundly transformed China's urban and rural landscapes. While extensive research has examined the economic effects of transport infrastructure in breaking down inter-regional barriers, relatively less attention has been paid to changes in intra-regional urban-rural accessibility. Based on the OpenStreetMap database, this paper uses ArcGIS to calculate the comprehensive urban-rural road density of 234 prefecture-level cities in China from 2014 to 2021, thereby quantifying its impact on the urban-rural income gap, its mechanism and the spatial spillover effects. The findings are as fouows: First during the observation period, urban-rural road construction significantly reduced the urban-rural income gap. Specifically, a one-unit increase in the comprehensive urban-rural road density can explain a 5.31% reduction in the urban-rural income gap. Secmd, The baseline regression results remain robust after a series of robustness checks and addressing endogeneity through instrumental variable methods. The effects are more pronounced in cities located in the eastern region, non-provincial capitals, larger cities, and those within the Beibu Gulf Urban Agglomeration. Third, Mechanism analysis indicates that urban-rural road construction primarily functions through factor market integration and industrial structure optimization. Forth, Spatial econometric model analysis reveals significant positive spillover effects on neighboring regions. Against the backdrop of building a unified domestic market, this paper provides valuable policy insights from a transportation perspective, aiming to optimize resource allocation, enhance urban comparative advantages, and promote high-quality development.

Key words: Urban-rural Road, Income Gap, Factor Mobility, Industrial Structure, Spatial Spillover