Institutional Change Degree And The Analysis Of Economic Gap Between East And West: A Viewpoint About Neo-institutional Economics

China has acquired noteworthy achievements since 1978. But the regional gap in China, especially the gap between the East and the West, has showed the enlarged trend along with the deepening of the system reform and the opening-up. This problem has been emphasized by many scholars home and abroad. Because of natural and historical reasons, the gap between the East and the West in China has existed before the foundation of new China. After that, in order to promote the Western economic development and shorten the regional gap, the central government invested a lot of money into the Western region. But until the reform and opening-up, the gap between the two was still unsolved thoroughly. Then with the carry-on of the opening-up, the enlarged velocity of the regional gap is fastening. Especially after 1980, the enlarging of the regional gap became more and more eminent. Since 1990s, the enlarged velocity of the regional gap fastened deeply. So the problem that we face is that, before the reform, the regional gap has existed, but hasn't enlarged. Why does the gap enlarge in post-reform period? Why does the same institutional change show up so great different performances? On the basis of that, the writer begins the thesis. The thesis's aim is not analyzing how the gap formed, but analyzing what factors lead to the regional gap's enlarging since the reform and opening-up. In recent years, the research about the regional gap is quite a lot, for example the theory of geographical circumstances determination, the theory of development strategy, the theory of investment difference and so on. Although each theory is within reason, the regional gap's formation and enlarging are the result of many factors. And also the above theories think about the gap from the static viewpoint, but the formation and the enlarging are the result of dynamic development, so they can't find the main reasons that led to the gap's enlarging. This paper thinks that the resource, the investment and geographical position aren't the main factors of the gap's enlarging, thinks the main factor is the institutional change extent's difference of the East and the West. That is, because of the restraints of the present institutional environment and institutional change costs, the velocity of the Eastern institutional change is much faster than that of the West, which leads to the regional gap's enlarging. Then this thesis analyses whatcauses the institutional change difference from two aspects. Firstly, the present institutional environment difference between the East and the West, Secondly, the institutional change cost difference between the East and the West.Besides the preface, the thesis includes four parts. Part one makes a brief comment about the outside economic increase theory and the inside viewpoint about the regional gap, and points out their disadvantages, then puts forward the paper's main viewpoint. Part two puts forward the paper's theory basis by way of the Technology change difference theory. Part three analyses the gap enlarging reason between the East and the West by using the Institutional change difference theory, And also is focused on analyzing what causes the institutional change difference between the East and the West from the institutional environment and the institutional change cost difference's point. Part four puts forward how to shorten the regional gap between the two regions on the basis of the above analysis.The thesis's creations include two aspects. Firstly, within the scope of the Neo-institutional structure, the paper puts forward the institutional change difference theory, and defines the meaning of the institution and the institutional environment deeply. At the same time the paper regards the institutional environment as the intrinsic function the institutional change. Secondly, the paper uses this theory to analyze the reason of the regional gap between the West and the East.