An Empirical Study On Convergence And Spatial Structure In China And Jiangsu Province

Economic growth is a key influential factor of the development of economy and the improvement of society to a country or region. Since the Reform and Openness, the economy of China has grown rapidly and Chinese living criterion has been improved greatly. The GDP in 1978 was 362.41 billion Yuan and GDP per was 379 Yuan. Until 2004 GDP was 13 687.59 billion Yuan and GDP per was 10 561 Yuan, growing separately 38 times and 28 times. The average growth rate of GDP and GDP per was 13.97% and 12.8% respectively. But the consequent result is the constant increase of the interregional divergence. The GDP ratio among East, Middle and West was 3.5:2.05:1 in 1978. But in 2004, that ratio has increasingly been to 5.22:2.28:1.The increasing divergence will depress the economic growth severely. This desires that we must take up the research on the convergence mechanism during the regional economic development. As a result, we could put forward the suitable development path, through which the expected aims can be gained in a shorter path. For this purpose, this article puts forward the general analysis method and builds the convergence test equation, through the summary on the research related to the convergence. Then the empirical research has been applied on economic growth of China and further research has also been made in Jiangsu province. Finally, suggestion which facilitates convergence has been put forward.This article consists of 5 parts. The first part points to the meaning on the convergence research, have a review on relevant documents, and make a plan of the study.The second part introduces the convergence theory and spatial dynamic distribution in brief and then outlines the analysis framework of this article. In this part, traditional factors and spatial effect will be considered together, which affects the convergence directly or indirectly.The third part is empirical research used the convergence method to validate and test the assumption in the 4 following subperiods: 1952-1965, 1965-1978, 1978-1990, and 1990-2004.According to the results, this article points out the key factors affecting convergence and the spatial dynamic distribution and the conclusions on the convergence pattern and mechanism in China have been made sequently.The fourth part is a further empirical research on Jiangsu province with similar method in the 2 subperiods: 1978-1990, 1990-2004. This part will test the validity of the convergence theory applied to a special region. And the special results on convergence pattern and mechanism, key factors, and distribution could be disclosed.In the fifth part, this article firstly practical suggestion eliminating the divergence on the basis of the empirical research and then the insufficiency and further research direction will be pointed out.