How agricultural socialized services pilot policies can reduce the urban-rural income gap

The implementation of China’s pilot policies on agricultural socialized services is not only of great significance for increasing farmers’ income and narrowing the urban-rural income gap in China, but also conducive to achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Based on the panel data of Chinese prefecture-level cities from 2012 to 2024, this paper empirically analyzes the policy impact, mechanism of action and heterogeneous effects of China’s pilot policies on agricultural socialized services on the urban-rural income gap. The results show that: (1) China’s pilot policies on agricultural socialized services can indeed narrow the urban-rural income gap, and this conclusion still holds after the placebo test and a series of robustness tests. (2) The pilot policies mainly narrow the urban-rural income gap through two paths: promoting the upgrading of industrial structure and raising the level of urbanization. (3) The impact of the pilot policies on the urban-rural income gap of low-income groups is not significant. (4) The pilot policies have a more obvious inhibitory effect on the urban-rural income gap in the central and western provinces, major grain-producing areas and grain production-marketing balance areas of China. The research conclusions provide a useful reference for developing countries including China to develop agricultural socialized services.