Regional economic development in Yangtze River Delta since 1978: Jiangsu Province as a particular case (China).

摘要

China has experienced rapid economic development since 1978, but significant regional disparity exists at various spatial levels. Yangtze River Delta is one of the most important regions in China. This research employs various quantitative methods within a conceptual framework to analyze uneven regional development in Yangtze River Delta, especially in Jiangsu province.; In this study, uneven regional development and its causes are examined at two spatial levels. At the provincial level, two kinds of analyses are conducted. First, regional economic structural and competitive advantages in Yangtze River Delta are examined using the well-known shift-share analysis with respect to GDP in three industrial sectors. The relative importance of structural and competitive advantages of the regional economic growth is identified. Second, the contributions of various factors, such as capital investment, labor force, as well as total factor productivity (TFP) to the regional economic growth are estimated using Cobb-Douglas production function. TFP is found to be important in the delta while capital is also important in Jiangsu and Zhejiang.; At the county level, the analysis of uneven regional economic development is focused on Jiangsu. The overall regional disparity in Jiangsu is decomposed into inter- and intra-regional disparities using generalized entropy approach. It is found that intra-regional disparities especially in southern Jiangsu had been reduced while the inter-regional disparity had been increased in 1978–1995.; Regional industrialization is one of the main processes of regional economic development. The driving forces behind the regional industrialization in Jiangsu are analyzed. The stepwise regression analysis is utilized to identify the relationships between various factors and the level of regional industrialization in different years. It is found that urban labor force and the share of TVEs in GOVIA are two fundamental factors of regional industrialization although other factors are significant in some years.; The effect of various factors on the regional industrialization may have spatial variation in terms of their location and economic background. The technique of geographically weighted regression (GWR) is adopted to examine the spatial variability of such effects. A clear spatial effect of regional development is identified. In particular, the GWR model is significantly better than the OLR (ordinary linear regression) model.; In addition to the above discussion, regional economic development strategies in response to various problems facing Jiangsu are also broadly examined. The considered key strategies should be coordinated and their implementation will stimulate further economic development in the region.; The findings of this research help to understand the process of unbalanced regional development in China. It is clear that many regions have their own unique path of regional development and each region requires detailed empirical analysis. The analysis results also shed light on the formulation of regional development policies crucial to the overall development of the whole nation. Various quantitative methods used in the research are very effective in dealing with various issues in the study of regional development. They give a formal means to unravel patterns and processes, and to substantiate or justify conceptual arguments. The approach and the method could be applied to study other regions in China.