Study On Convergence And Regional Economic Inequalities In The Three Provinces Of Northeast China

The imbalanced regional economic development,differences of economic growth and convergence mechanism are recurring topics in current economic geography.There exists an enlarging developmental gap between the three provinces of Northeastern China due to the planned economic system which existed for a long time in the past.The regional imbalance in economic growth has weakened the overall development of Northeastern China which has been less developed compared to other regions.The"Northeast phenomenon" and "New Northeast Phenomenon" has attracted lots of public as well as academic attention.A better understanding of regional economic differences of Northeastern China can contribute to a narrowing gap between the three provinces in future and the promotion of overall development of Northeastern China.Therefore,this dissertation aims to disclose the regional economic differences of Northeastern China and its convergence.This paper first compares the regional economy differences between the Northeast provinces from interspace and time.Second,it decomposes the economy difference based on different spatial scales and industries,and then examines the spatial dependence in regional economy differences.At last,the dissertation uses spatial econometric analysis to explore the convergence mechanism of economic growth differences and influence factors.The main findings include:1)Both absolute differences and relative differences for Northeast regional economy had enlarged from 2000 to 2014;2)The overall regional economic difference in Northeast has generally enlarged,while the inter-regional economy has minor difference.However,the inside regional difference has a significant influence on Northeast overall regional economic difference;3)The second industry has the biggest contribution to the economic difference but its contribution is reducing.The contribution of third industry continues to rise;4)The level of economic development presents spatial differences between different periods.The spatial agglomeration was steadily increasing in 2000-2009,while the regional difference continued enlarging.However,from 2009 to 2014,the spatial agglomeration and regional difference were in the opposite trends.Thus,the spatial agglomeration presents'U-Curve',while the regional difference presents 'inverted U curve';5)The economic growth does not have absolute ? convergence or absolute ? convergence,but exists a conditional ? convergence.By studying the result of the Spatial Lag Model and Spatial Tobit model,the regional economic growth of Northeastern China is influenced by the exogenous controlled variable,so the level of industrialization and human capital accumulation are the key factors in the enlarging regional difference.Among the spatial impact factors of regional convergence,the degree of openness and the industrial structure have "crowding-out effect" on the regional economic development,and human capital has significant positive spillover effects.Results show that the competition between regions of Northeastern China causes a significantly negative effect,which means that regional competition and the plunder of resources likely lead to a widening gap of regional disparity.At last,this dissertation provides some advices on related policy which aim to promote coordinated development in Northeastern China.