  For most developing countries, increasing the equalization of basic public
services is widely recognized as an effective channel to improve people's sense
of contentment. However, for many emerging economies like China, the
equalization level of basic public services may often be neglected in the
trade-off between the speed and quality of development. Taking the Yangtze
River Delta region of China as an example, this paper first adopts the coupling
coordination degree model to explore current status of basic public services in
this region, and then uses Moran's I index to study the overall equalization
level of development there. Moreover, this paper uses the Theil index to
analyze the main reasons for the spatial differences in the level of public
services, followed by the AF method to accurately identify the exact weaknesses
of the 40 counties of 10 cities with the weakest level of basic public service
development. Based on this, this paper provides targeted optimization
initiatives and continues to explore the factors affecting the growth of the
level of public service equalization through the convergence model, verifying
the convergence trend of the degree of public service equalization, and
ultimately providing practical policy recommendations for promoting the
equalization of basic public services.
