Extended Abstract
Introduction
Increasing welfare is one of the reasons for the expansion of cities. Welfare always has two material and spiritual dimensions: its material dimension is related to basic needs, such as food, clothing, health, housing, etc., and its spiritual dimension is related to topics, such as enjoying human, political, social, and economic rights, and legal protection for all people. These concepts are prerequisites for the development of urbanization, so it is not possible to create cities without achieving these goals. In other words, if urbanization does not provide welfare and social security for residents, it cannot be regarded as an efficient factor. In developing countries, development and economic growth proceed simultaneously. Along with economic development, economic production is transferred from the agricultural and rural sectors to industrial and service production. Also, due to the greater use of capital-intensive technologies, part of the active workforce in the agricultural sector has lost their jobs and migrated to the cities to find jobs.
This change in the composition of production creates economic development in cities as the labor force and manufacturing plants in cities converge to be employed in industrial and service activities using economies of scale. If urbanization does not bring welfare and social security to residents, it is not efficient. Industrial and service activities concentrated in urban areas are more efficient due to economies of scale. Increasing production activity in an area helps increase information and awareness among producers, which in turn improves market performance. Another benefit of this concentration is the reduction of transportation costs and the exchange of products and inputs among producers, which reduces production costs, and this itself is a significant positive side effect. Of course, there is no guarantee that the expansion of cities will improve the level of well-being of all people living in such areas equally.
It is possible that the development of urbanization causes class differences among citizens, which in turn reduces their quality of life. In general, it is expected that the economic growth of cities will optimize the fair distribution of income, insurance, social support, and medical services, can provide job opportunities, and generally create a favorable level of well-being for the resident population.
Method
In this study, the non-linear relationship between urbanization and social welfare of Iranian provinces has been evaluated based on dynamic panel data technique during the period of 2011-2019. Social welfare is calculated using the SEN index. Also, in addition to the urbanization variable, the effect of other variables such as urbanization square, household income level and employment on well-being in Iran’s provinces were also investigated.
The results indicate that the variables of household income and employment have a positive effect on the level of well-being in the provinces, in other words, with an increase in the level of household income and also with an increase in the number of employed people, the level of well-being in the provinces of Iran increases, but regarding the variable of urbanization, the results have been different from these two variables, based on the results of the relationship between urbanization and household welfare, it is an inverted U, which means that urbanization initially has a positive effect on the level of welfare in the provinces of Iran, but after reaching a maximum level, it declines, and their relationship will be negative. In other words, up to the maximum point, with the increase in urbanization, the level of welfare increases simultaneously, but after the threshold point, with the increase in the level of urbanization, the level of welfare of households in Iran decreases.
Finding
Part of the increase in urbanization and the population of residents in urban areas is due to the large migration of residents from other areas to cities. Immigrants migrate to cities in search of better access to facilities because access to educational, occupational, health, etc. facilities are better in cities than rural areas. Therefore, every year, a large number of people living in villages migrate to the cities in search of jobs and better facilities. Living in cities, if the necessary infrastructure is not provided to meet the needs of the entire resident population, will reduce the level of well-being of the residents.
Also, the outskirts of the cities are not full of suitable settlements in terms of welfare level. Dwelling in cities is depopulated because the infrastructure needed to meet the needs of the entire population reduces. Also, the outskirts of the cities are full of settlements with suitable environmental conditions. Therefore, with the increase in the population of cities and the expansion of urbanization, the level of welfare of the people will increase to a certain extent, and their access to welfare facilities will increase, but due to the limitations in the resources and infrastructures in the cities, with the increase in protection from a certain level to a higher level of welfare, the number of people living in the cities will decrease, and the access of most of the immigrants to the cities’ welfare facilities will be cut off, meaning that sometimes even their welfare level on the outskirts of the cities will be lower than that of of the rural people.
Discussin
The most appropriate way to improve the level of welfare of households is to improve educational, occupational, and health facilities in villages and non-urban areas, in which case immigrants will not migrate to cities to access better facilities, which will not necessarily happen for the well-being of themselves and other residents of the cities. Living on the outskirts of cities, they themselves have problems achieving their goal, which is to increase the level of well-being.
Ethical considerations
Authors’ contributions:
All authors contributor in producing of the research.
Funding
This article was written independently and no financial support was received from any organization to write it.
Conflicts of interest
There is no conflict of interest in this article.
Following the principles of research ethics
In this article, has complied all rights relating to ethical point, especially the non-manipulation and distortion of data and respecting the rights of interviewees.