The positive impact of urban-rural integration on consumption gap among residents in China

Urban-rural integration (URI) is a crucial strategy for promoting sustainable economic and social development and represents the ideal state of urban-rural relations. The urban-rural consumption gap (URCG) is a critical indicator of disparities in quality of life and access to resources between urban and rural residents. Little is known about how URI affects the material living standards of urban and rural residents. This study uses panel data from 224 prefecture-level cities in China over the period 2002 to 2022. The Geographically and temporally weighted regression (GTWR) is applied to examine the spatially and temporally heterogeneous effects of URI on the URCG. The URCG is assessed from two dimensions: the urban-rural consumption expenditure gap (URCE) and the urban-rural Engel coefficient gap (UREC). The results indicate that the URCG narrowed from 2002 to 2022, with the URCE decreasing from 2.79 to 1.75, and the UREC increasing from 0.87 to 0.94. The average mitigating effect of URI on URCE improved as the coefficient decreased from −7.91 to −0.64. Similarly, the average mitigating effect of URI on UREC strengthened with the coefficient declining from 0.98 to −0.11. In addition, the mitigating effect of URI on URCE is most pronounced in middle-income regions, whereas its mitigating effect on UREC is strongest in high-income regions. This study contributes to a deeper understanding of how URI affects urban-rural consumption inequality and offers empirical evidence from China to inform policy formulation in other developing countries.