Convergence Analysis of Village Collective Economy Based on a Long-Term (1978–2018) Observation of 40 Villages in the Suburbs of Beijing

Abstract This paper uses the follow-up survey data of six time points between 1978 and 2018 from 40 fixed observation points in Beijing suburbs by stratified sampling, and makes a long-term observation and analysis of the convergence of village collective economy (VCE). The main findings are as follows. (1) Since the start of reform and opening-up, the gap between villages in terms of total village economic income (TVEI) and total assets of village collectives has obviously widened, and the gap between villages in terms of the number of members of VCE organizations has also widened to a certain extent. (2) There is a big gap in VCE between villages in urban-rural fringe, plain and mountainous areas, and the convergence of “space club” appears. (3) In the early stage of reform and opening up, the VCE development had the opportunity to reshuffle, but from 1998 to 2018, village development showed a trend of “good-medium-poor” hierarchical solidification. Therefore, it is necessary to explore a new path of cross-village joint development, especially to develop and strengthen the township-level collective economy, so as to promote farmers’ common prosperity in rural areas.