Regional Inequality in Underdeveloped Areas: A Case Study of Guizhou Province in China

Abstract

This study analyzes regional development in one of the poorest provinces in China, Guizhou Province, between 2000 and 2012 using a multiscale and multi-mechanism framework. In general, regional inequality has been declining since 2000. In addition, economic development in Guizhou Province presented spatial agglomeration and club convergence, which shows how the development pattern of core-periphery has been developed between 2006 and 2012. Multilevel regression analysis revealed that industrialization, marketization and investment level were the primary driving forces of regional economic disparity in Guizhou Province. We can get a deeper understanding of the mechanisms involved in regional inequality in Guizhou Province with the multilevel regression models. The influences of decentralization on regional economic disparity were actually relatively weak, and investment level exhibited more importance on the regional inequality when the variable of time was considered. In addition, both the topography and urban-rural differentiation were the two main reasons for forming a core-periphery structure in Guizhou Province.

Changing Regional Inequality Patterns in Western China: A Case Study of Xinjiang

“…As the Western Development Strategy became an important national policy in the 2000s, regional disparities in the west of provinces have become a new hotspot, and a few scholars have examined regional inequality of the mountainous regions in southwest China, such as Guizhou province and Guangxi Zhuang autonomous province [27,28]. However, much more remote, poorer, and more complex provinces have not been thoroughly investigated.…”

“…e spatial autoregressive model is widely used in previous studies to detect the significance and contributions of different factors to regional inequality [26,28]. It is worth mentioning that previous studies also employed more complex models such as learning models or complex network-based models to explore the pattern [45,46].…”

Regional Inequality in China Based on NPP-VIIRS Night-Time Light Imagery

“…However, most of the previous studies on regional inequality in China have focused on several prominent economic indicators, such as GDP per capita, GNP per capita, and per capita income [10,11]. Questions have been raised time and again about the utility of either GDP or GDP per capita as a sole measure of a region's economic development [12].…”

Process of change of the spatial polarization of population urbanization in the Yangtze River Delta region

“…究的 "空间极化" 为人口要素在空间上非均衡集聚 到一定程度后而产生的偏离全局平均水平分化分 布 的 状 态 或 结 果 [6] ， 其 偏 离 程 度 称 为 " 空 间 极 化 度" 。为了能将区域空间极化的过程量化更加直观 准确地进行反映， 国外研究早期集中于对空间极化 的量化方法上， 结合基尼系数不能准确把握群体在 区域中的变化及影响的不足， 相继提出 Esteban-Ray (ER)指数 [7] 、 Wolfson 指数 [8] 、 Tsui-Wang (TW)指 数 [9] 以及坎贝尔-张指数(KZ 指数) [10] 等。在应用层 面， 学者们对空间极化的实证研究较为丰富， 国外 学者先后对欧洲 [11][12][13] 、 北美洲 [14] 等大洲的国家和地 区进行了区域经济要素集聚差异及 "极化" 演化格 局分析并探究其驱动机理 [15][16] ， 其中， 研究发现， 多 数国家的极化水平在 1970 年以来呈现出上升的趋 势 [7] ； 区域的开放度与城市规模大小是引起区域空 间极化形成与发展的主要因素 [16] 。国内学者围绕 城镇化的发展要求， 从不同视角和不同尺度针对城 镇化过程中人口、 经济等系统间均衡发展关系进行 研究 [17][18] 。研究内容上， 主要聚焦于城镇化发展过 程中城市规模的两极分化 [19][20] 、 城市经济的空间极 化格局与效应 [21][22][23] 、 区域发展空间极化的形成过程 与驱动机制等方面 [24] ， 相关研究主要包括： 利用单 一指标或构建多要素综合评价指标体系， 探究城市 增长过程中空间极化的演化特征 [25][26][27] ； 借助 ER 指数 和 TW 指数， 分析城镇化要素空间极化的过程并对 其发展趋势进行预测 [28][29] ； 运用空间自相关模型等 分析不同要素的空间集聚规律 [27,30] ； 采用面板数据回 归模型等， 研究经济发展和城镇化空间极化的驱动 机制 [31] 。从研究结论来看， 城镇化要素的空间极化 现象和程度在不断加深 [32] ； 贵州中部与外围地区、 江苏的苏南与苏北、 广东珠三角与其他地区等城市 间的不均衡发展导致差距持续扩大 [33][34][35] ， 再次印证 了区域内的核心-外围结构； 人口要素是空间极化 形成最主要的内部影响因子之一， 对城市发展和经 济质量提升起到重要作用 [36] 。此外， 还有学者基于 扎根理论， 对中国空间极化研究的现状进行梳理分 析， 发现学界对空间极化的产生多持中立态度， 且在 中国的诸多区域和领域均具有极化现象 [37] ， 如在铁 路运输 [38] 、 科技创新 [39] 、 服务业 [40][41] 和文-旅产业融 合发展 [42]…”