Spatial Econometrical Empirical Analysis Of Regional Economic Growth In China

Economic growth has been one of the main research topics of economics.Most research works in the past time considered region as 'island' and their mutual relation in different regions was often ignored.As we know,regional economy is an open system.The factors such as product trade,factor mobility,the diffusions of knowledge and technology make relations among regions complicated.Regional economics is mutual related but not isolated.In other words,the economic growth relationships between different regions are becoming tighter and clustering effects are obvious. Therefore,the economic growth of one region not only depends on its element devotion but also growth traces of other regions.In recent years,the development of regional economic theory and spatial econometrics brings new life into regional economic research.In this paper,based on new classic economics and new economic geography, firstly we use Moran's I index and Moran scatter plots to test spatial dependence of per capita GDP growth among 31 provinces from 1978 to 2007 in China;Secondly, we use different spatial models to analyze spatial dependence,spatial heterogeneity and spatial patterns.The both main aims are as follows:what are the inner mechanisms of regional economy growth in China? Are there any spatial effects and homogeneities in economic growth of different provinces? Thirdly,using techniques of spatial econometrics,we test the club convergence andβ-convergence of regional economic growth in China from 1978 to 2007.Finally,by combination of theories and empirical results of regional economy,some policies and suggestions for the existing problems are proposed.The main four conclusions are summarized as follows:(1) The per-capita GDP among provinces exist spatial dependence in China,its tendency is becoming stronger, and such dependence has spatial heterogeneous between regions.(2) The personal financial expenditure and foreign investment can promote regional economic growth effectively and their influence differs among different regions.(3) The spatial dependence of per capita GDP among different provinces is reflected in residuals.(4) There exists obvious club convergence in eastern,western and middle regions in China.SEM model plays a corrected role toβ-convergence model but spatial econometric models are not adapted to test club convergence.