Does the synergy among agriculture, industry, and the service industry alleviate rural poverty? Evidence from China

ABSTRACT

This paper provides empirical evidence that strengthening the synergy among agriculture, industry, and the service industry is an effective rural poverty reduction strategy. Using China’s provincial panel data from 2010 to 2019, we employ a coupling model to measure this synergy and to apply an empirical analysis methodology to examine its impact on rural poverty. The results indicate that the synergy among agriculture, industry, and the service industry results in a significant decrease in rural poverty. The poverty reduction effect is greatest in western China. The growth of the rural economy and the increase in rural households’ business income are the main channels by which synergy plays its role in reducing poverty.

KEYWORDS:

• Synergies between sectors
• agriculture
• rural poverty reduction
• rural development
• China

JEL CLASSIFICATION:

• I38
• O13
• O53
• Q19
• R11

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The research is funded by the Youth Project for Humanities and Social Sciences Fund of the Ministry of Education of China (20XJC790010) and Key Projects of Class A Funding Funded by Guangxi Educational Science Planning (2021A041).