Sun, W.; Lin, X.; Liang, Y.; Li, L. Regional Inequality in Underdeveloped Areas: A Case Study of Guizhou Province in China. Sustainability2016, 8, 1141.
Sun, W.; Lin, X.; Liang, Y.; Li, L. Regional Inequality in Underdeveloped Areas: A Case Study of Guizhou Province in China. Sustainability 2016, 8, 1141.
Sun, W.; Lin, X.; Liang, Y.; Li, L. Regional Inequality in Underdeveloped Areas: A Case Study of Guizhou Province in China. Sustainability2016, 8, 1141.
Sun, W.; Lin, X.; Liang, Y.; Li, L. Regional Inequality in Underdeveloped Areas: A Case Study of Guizhou Province in China. Sustainability 2016, 8, 1141.
Abstract
This study analyses regional development in one of the poorest provinces in China, Guizhou Province, between 2000 and 2012 using a multiscale and multi-mechanism framework. In general, regional inequality has been declining since 2000. In addition, economic development in Guizhou Province presented spatial agglomeration and club convergence, which shows how the development pattern of one core area, two-wing areas and a contiguous area at the edge of the province have been developed between 2006 and 2012. Multilevel regression analysis revealed that industrialization and investment level were the primary driving forces of regional economic disparity in Guizhou Province. The influences of marketization and decentralization on regional economic disparity were relatively weak. Investment level reinforced regional economic disparity and the development of core-periphery structure in the province. However, investment level actually weakened the regional economic disparity in Guizhou Province when the variable of time was considered. In addition, both the topography and urban–rural differentiation were the two main reasons for forming a core-periphery structure in Guizhou Province.
Keywords
Regional inequality; Multilevel regression; Markov chain; Guizhou Province
Subject
Social Sciences, Geography, Planning and Development
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.