Nonlinear Effect of Urbanization on the Gap between Urban and Rural Elementary Education in China

The urban-rural gap of elementary education seriously affects social fairness, so the study on the urban-rural gap of elementary education can help promote social fairness in China. China’s urbanization is an important variable affecting the social process, and its impact on the urban-rural gap of elementary education is worthy of further study. Based on China’s provincial panel data from 2006 to 2017, this paper uses the Theil index to measure the urban-rural gap in different aspects of elementary education and uses principal component analysis (PCA) to construct a comprehensive index to objectively measure the urban-rural gap of overall elementary education in China. Our results show that the gap between urban and rural areas in China’s elementary education showed an upward trend from 2006 to 2010, and the gap decreased year by year from 2010 to 2017. Then we used the panel smooth transition regression (PSTR) model to study the impact of urbanization on the urban-rural gap of elementary education in China and find evidence that urbanization has a nonlinear effect on the urban-rural gap of elementary education. That is, in economically underdeveloped areas, urbanization exacerbates the gap between urban and rural areas in elementary education, while in economically developed areas, urbanization narrows the gap between urban and rural areas in elementary education. Therefore, developing economy and continuing to promote urbanization are effective measures to narrow the gap between urban and rural areas in elementary education.