Analysis Of Jiangsu Regional Economy Disparities And Its Causes

The expansion of regional economic disparities has affected economic development and social stability, and become a major economic issue. It has already drawn wide attention in different social sectors. Although Jiangsu is one of the most developed provinces in eastern coastal region of China, there are also internal problems of economic disparities between regions. The expansion of disparities will affect the continuous and high-speed growing of overall economy of Jiangsu, and ultimately prevent the achievement of the"Two Leads in Development".Firstly, this thesis described the characteristics of regional economic disparities in Jiangsu Province, which includes the differences of the scale of economy, economic development level, economic growth rate, economic structure and open to outside world degree among three major economic regions in Jiangsu. By using statistics and statistical methods such as the weighted standard deviation, weighted coefficient of variation, principal component analysis, cluster analysis etc, I measured the regional economic differences in Jiangsu Province. The result showed that the absolute disparities in Jiangsu Province had kept on expanding in the past 10 years, and the relative disparities appeared the trend from increase to decrease. The internal disparities of Suzhou were the smallest. The internal disparities in Xuzhou Yancheng and Suqian were larger.Secondly, this thesis analyzed the direct and indirect influencing factors of the formation and expansion of regional economic development disparities in Jiangsu province. Three production function models were established based on 2000 to 2009 panel data of Jiangsu's thirteen major economic regions. The results indicated that domestic investment made the greatest contribution to economic growth in the Southern and the central Jiangsu region, and the economic growth in Northern part relied on labor input. The linear regression analysis of economic variables of cities of Jiangsu province in 2009 showed that the indirect factors of Jiangsu's economic development include: market growth rate, industrial structure and open to the outside world degree.Finally, some suggestions and countermeasures were made to prompt the coordinate development based on the characteristics and causes of Jiangsu regional economy development disparities. That includes the release of surplus labor, and promote transfer of surplus labor; public investment moderately inclined to promote regional development in northern Jiangsu; improve livelihood security, and promote consumption; development of high technology, upgrading the industrial structure; to attract foreign investment, improve the openness; the development of new economic growth pole, promote the development of backward areas.