THE IMPACT OF URBANIZATION ON INCOME INEQUALITY IN KAZAKHSTAN: THE REGIONAL ASPECT

Abstract

Urbanization has a significant impact on the economic growth of countries and the development of human capital. At the same time, it increases the income gap between the city and the countryside, as well as in the structure of one city.

The article is devoted to the study of the relationship between urbanization and income inequality at the national and regional levels.

Along with general scientific methods of cognition, the method of regression analysis was used in the study. A model where the proportion of the urban population characterizing the urbanization process acts as independent variable (determinant) are constructed. The Gini coefficient is chosen as the influencing factor.

Based on the analysis, it is concluded that there is a weak positive relationship between urbanization and the level of income inequality in the context of the country. However, for some regions of Kazakhstan, the movement of the population from rural to urban, on the contrary, increases income differentiation. This allows us to conclude that there is a need for a more balanced policy in the field of urbanization, using further classification of regions based on the principle of dependence of income inequality on the urbanization process.