THE CHANGE TRENDS OF REGIONAL ECONOMIC POLARIZATION IN CHINA,1952-2000
使用多种极化指数，基于1952-2000年人均GDP数据，分析中国省际区域经济极化的长期趋势，发现沿海-内陆和高度-低度城市化维度的极化持续增强，而南北维度无极化趋势。
This study has scrutinized the long-term regional polarization and its change trend in China in terms of real per capita GDP employing several recently developed methods, Esteban-Ray index, Tsui-Wang index and Kanbur-Zhang index, based on a long and consistent data series, 1952-2000. The study results show that, on the whole, the overall long tendency of regional economic polarization across inter-provincial regions in China was increasing and decreasing cyclically with time through 1952 to 2000. During the transitional period 1978-2000, in the long run, although the tendency of regional polarization had been intensified obviously, the change trend of polarization was not so serious as thought, and it has been decreasing since 1999. As for the polarizations and their trends in spatial dimensions, the polarizations in coastal-inland and highly-less urbanized dimensions are always increasing in terms of magnitude and trend during the period 1952 to 2000, and since 1993 and 1986 their KZ indices had been greater than 1, respectively; by contrast, in terms of magnitude and trend of polarization during the period 1952 to 2000, the polarization in highly-less urbanized dimension was greater and more evident than that in the coastal-inland dimension, but its polarization speed is much slower than that in the coastal-inland dimension, the former is 4.40%, the latter is 15.82% during the period 1952-2000; whereas there are no polarization and polarization tendency in south-north dimension from 1952 to 2000.