Empirical analysis on the priority order in public goods supply by government in building a new countryside

Increasing the supply of public goods to rural areas is a crucial step to promote the construction of a new socialist countryside, which is a major historic task in China's modernization. Therefore, it bears great policy implication to find out how the government should control the investment in countryside and which public goods should be given priority in order to make full use of the limited government capital. On the basis of document sorting-out and analysis, this paper establishes the framework and model for the analysis on the order of priority in providing public goods to rural areas. The paper proposes that the government supply of public goods should aim at promoting the increase of labor productivity in agricultural and nonagricultural sectors as well as the increase of farmers' income. The paper explores the contribution of such public goods as scientific research, medicare and social security to rural residents' income and agricultural and nonagricultural labor productivity. Based on the results of the empirical study, the paper offers suggestions to the government for identifying priority order in public goods supply in the hope of promoting rural economic growth, development of social undertaking and construction of a new socialist countryside.