The Spatial Econometric Analysis Of The Chengdu Economic Zone’s Spatial Autocorrelation And Growth Convergence

Firstly, this article is to apply for exploratory spatial data analysis (ESDA) methods, respectively, through the construction of spatial weights matrix based on contiguity relationship and spatial weights matrix based on distance beam relationship using the Moran index value to study the spatial correlation of Chengdu economic zone60counties (cities, districts) per capita GDP from2000to2011.By the research the results of Moran index have significantly Moran index value greater than0,but the value is declining year after year.roughly and at the same time the value based on the contiguity relationship is greater than the value based on the distance beam relationship. It demonstrates that the per capita GDP of the Chengdu economic zone counties (cities, districts) is of spatial correlation which decreases since2000and the spatial correlation has the character of distance decline.SLM and SEM are introduced based on the spatial weights matrix of the contiguity relationship and the distance beam relationship to study the Chengdu economic zone counties (cities, districts) per capita GDP growth convergence. According to the choosing standards of models which are Moran error, Lagrange Multiplier (error), Lagrange Multiplier (lag), Robust Lagrange Multiplier (error) and Robust Lagrange Multiplier (lag), the results show that the SLM of the spatial weights matrix based on the distance beam relationship is a better model than others. Thus, by the maximum likelihood estimation of parameter estimation results, we can see a convergence coefficient is still negative and the absolute value is smaller than the traditional model of the convergence. This illustrates that after considering spatial autocorrelation, there are still convergence of the economic growth of Chengdu economic zone. However, within a certain distance due to the average annual growth rate of per capita GDP of the neighborhood it will produce a positive effect of the space and this effect diminished negative correlation between economic growth and the initial value of per capita GDP, which led directly adjacent spatial effects decreased Chengdu economic zone regional economic growth rate of convergence.