An Empirical Study on the Growth of Rural Residents’ Income in Hubei Province, China
Xing Tang

Abstract
In recent years, despite of its significant progress in economic and social development and poverty reduction, China still faces many challenges to reduce residual poverty and promote per capita income, especially in rural area. As a central agricultural province, the average level of rural residents’ income (RI) in Hubei provincehas experienced a noticeable increase in recent three decades, but is still lower than the country’s average level and the counterpart in urban area. The main aim of this paper is to examine the rural residents’ income situation in Hubei and what we can do to boost their income. Based on the existing literature and theories about the growth of rural residents’ income or income distribution, we firstly examine what can be determinants of rural household income in general. Then we go over the income situation of Hubei rural residents from 1978 to 2012. Next OLS and PCR model are set up to test whether and how tentative factors can influence rural residents’ income in Hubei. At last, with the result of the econometric analysis and the economic theory, some suggestions are listed to boost the growth of RI in Hubei.

Full Text: PDF