Progress of regional economic geography in China: a comparative study

Domestic and international literatures in economic geography in recent years showthat the disciplinary status of regional economic geography remains steay. Domesticliteratures prefer regional comprehensive development than that of international in theapplication fields. The process of establishing theoretical system with Chinese characteristocscontinues and has made some progress. The economic regions element theory, developmenttheory and management theory have been added to the already existed theory system. Theconstruction of comprehensive and integrated methodology system has initiated.

Environmental economic geography:Recent advances and innovative development

Modern environmental problems are the result of human-environment interaction in the process of industrial-ization.The relationship between economic development and environmental quality is an important aspect of understanding human-environment interaction and has been widely concerned by multidisciplinary researchers.Economic geography(EG)is a discipline that mainly focuses on the location and connections of economic activi-ties.EG has developed to environmental economic geography(EEG)by incorporating environmental factors into its research framework,considering the operational mechanism of the co-evolution of economy and environment,and the dynamic process of green transition of techno-economic paradigms.Studying the resource and environ-mental effects of R&D,production,trade,and other aspects of the economic cycle is beneficial to realizing the“greening”economy.This paper traces the background and theoretical development path of EEG and elaborates on the interaction between EEG and other research paradigms on environmental problems.In recent years,the focuses of EEG are as follows:(1)the“location-environment”relationship of production from the perspective of local actors;(2)the“GVC/GPN-environment”relationship of multinational enterprises and space of flows from the perspective of the global network;(3)the“trade/circulation-environment”relationship from the perspective of national linkages;and(4)the co-evolution of the economic system and environment from the perspective of synergistic evolution,with a focus on innovation and institutional forces.The future development trend of EEG is combined with the endogenous growth theory and the sustainable development theory,mainly from the aspects of endogenous,system integration and multi-scale,to explain the differences in environmental issues of differ-ent regional economic activities,and to promote the development of EEG theory and interdisciplinary research,strengthening the construction of global and regional sustainable development system.

Pattern of Opening Up,Integration and Reshaping Economic Geography——A New Economic Geography Analysis of the Belt and Road Initiative and the Yangtze River Economic Belt

Since the 18 th National Congress of the Communist Party of China,the central government has implemented several regional development plans,including the Belt and Road Initiative and the Yangtze River Economic Belt,aiming to reshape the economic geography of China.This paper is based on the Belt and Road Initiative and the Yangtze River Economic Belt and outlines the pattern of opening up.To analyze the impact of the pattern of opening up on the regional integration of China's economic geography,this paper has developed a new economic geography model comprised of four regions and two countries.From this,it draws some conclusions.First,the change of pattern of opening up will lead to shifting centripetal and centrifugal forces from the international market.The greater the scale of neighboring markets,the stronger the agglomeration force will be; the more product varieties made in neighboring countries,the more potent its dispersion force.Second,developing an inland international trade corridor will decentralize industry distribution and reduce the impact of external market integration on home countries.Third,the inland international trade corridor could alter the effect of domestic market integration on the economic geography.When domestic integration occurs prior to international integration,further integration of a domestic market leads to greater industrial distribution along a bell-shaped curve,which describes economic activities from dispersion to agglomeration to decentralization.Therefore,developing an integrated market system of major countries and opening a corridor between China and Europe is not only the key to reshaping China's economic geography but also the path to solving the problems of the Heihe-Tengchong Line.

Effect of regional factor productivity on manufacturing sector: The case of Sino-Pak economic ties

Introduction:Economic ties and trade blocs increase the flow of trade between participating countries and lead to different levels of economic and structural changes.Case description:This paper focuses on the structure of industrial value-added between China and Pakistan,as the two countries recently launched the CPEC(China-Pakistan Economic Corridor)project.Discussion and evaluation:This study utilizes panel data from 1995 to 2015 to test certain factor effects on regional value-added through econometric analyses.The results show that each country has its own economic growth rate and market size that respond differently to industrial value-added production.Conclusion:Aggregate factor productivity at China is higher than in Pakistan but growth in factor productivity in the latter is higher than the former;similarly,the share of bilateral trade is higher in the case of Pakistan.Although each country responds differently to the new economic ties,the macroeconomic results support bilateral economic ties between them.

Review of and prospects for China＇s human and economic geography

The ＂High-Level Forum of the Development of China＇s Human Geography Under the Background of Change＂ was held in Beijing on January 22-23, 2016. More than 30 pro-fessors attended this forum. At this conference, they discussed the major progress made towards developing China＇s human geography, as well as the existing problems, limiting fac- tors, opportunities, international collaborations, emerging directions, and prospects in the development of this discipline. In recent years human geography has boomed, generating many important opportunities for its development. Establishing an academic community for joint research on major research issues and collaborative innovation is a promising and im- portant route to take. We should embrace both domestic and international characteristics, to promote China＇s human geography onto the world stage. Meanwhile, the cultivation of vari- ous scholarly talents is also of great value to enrich and advance the discipline.

The Impact and Spillover Effects of Chinese Ports on Urban Service Industry under De-maritimization:A Perspective for Port Economic Geography Analysis

Will ports become less important in a post-industrial period dominated by service industries?This paper examines the impact and the spillover effects of ports on city economies.The results show that ports contribute to city economies primarily through producer and consumer services.To be specific,ports can drive the development of port-related producer services,and port spillover effects from other cities have a broader impact on producer services;the port contributes to the development of wholesale and retail trades in the local city but the boost to consumer services comes mainly from spillover effects from other ports.This paper concludes that ports are still shaping economic geography by influencing the service sector,and inter-city coordination mechanisms are suggested because of the spillover effects.

Progress of economic geography in China＇s mainland since 2000

Economic geography in China＇s mainland has developed in a different way from that in many other countries. On the one hand, it has been increasingly active in participating in academic dialogues and knowledge development led by Anglophone countries; on the other hand, it takes practice-based and policy-oriented research, i.e. satisfying the demands from the Chinese government and society, as the linchpin of research. Since there has been a lot of literature reviewing the development of economic geography in the country before the new millennium, this paper will make a comprehensive analysis of the discipline in 2000–2015, based on a bibliometric survey and research projects done by Chinese economic geographers. The analysis indicates that（1） economic geography research in China＇s mainland is unevenly distributed but concentrated in several leading institutions;（2） traditional research fields like human-nature system, regional disparity, industrial location and transportation geography remain dominant while new topics such as globalization, multinational corporations and foreign direct investments, information and communication technology, producer services, climate change and carbon emission emerge as important research areas;（3） Chinese economic geography is featured by policy-oriented research funded by government agencies, having considerable impacts on regional policy making in China, both national and regional. To conclude, the paper argues that the development of economic geography in China＇s mainland needs to follow a dual track in the future, i.e. producing knowledge for the international academic community and undertaking policy-oriented research to enhance its role as a major consulting body for national, regional and local development.

The second law of geography for a spatially enabled economy

Location has proven axiomatic as an economic variable throughout human history.Tobler’s first law of geography introduced the importance of location;in that,near things are more related than far things.In an age of digital economies,a new research frontier exists where everything is more related to everything else and has an increased economic value from spatially enabled technology.The accessibility of digital-spatial information has brought economic geographers to a new understanding of markets within a Digital Earth framework.The importance of location to economic value can be expected to grow as the Internet of Things develops in sophistication.New business models enter and disrupt established markets with innovative spatially enabled approaches.A successful penetration of established markets suggests a new business model for financial and functional utility by engaging spatially enabled assets.The second law of geography is introduced as a conceptual framework to comprehend the economic potential of spatially enabled information.A comparative analysis of non-spatial versus spatial web agents provides a quantitative framework to demonstrate the benefits of the Digital Earth economy.

人文地理学学科体系与发展战略要点

Human geography is a discipline that studies the formation and evolution of the geographical distribution pattern of human activities.The main research objects of human geography focus on human activities and human-environment relationship.The scientific questions to be answered by human geography cover both natural science and social science,and thus it has distinctive interdisciplinary features.In China,human activities’economic and social processes play an essential role in explaining the law in human geography discipline as human society development is approaching or has entered the post-industrialization stage.The logic and methods of social science have become important tools through which human geography’s changes in processes and patterns of human geography can be reasonably discussed and adequately understood.The research methodology of human geography shows integration characteristics between natural sciences and social sciences.The outcomes of human geography research reveal scientific laws in geographical distribution patterns and the evolution of human activities.It becomes one of the primary disciplines for both the national and local governments to manage and optimize spatial development and protection patterns.It has wide applications in spatial planning,regional strategy and policy-making,and the modernization of spatial governance.The unique feature in integrating academic research and policy-making applications provides human geography discipline in China a superiority of leading the world in the discipline.Besides integrated human geography,human geography in China has five subdisciplines:economic geography,urban geography,rural geography,socio-cultural geography and political geography.Each subdiscipline has priority and critical research fields and coordinates with the rest of the subdisciplines.

Impact of market access and comparative advantage on regional distribution of manufacturing sector

We discuss the effects of trade costs and comparative technology on industry location by employing the model presented by Martin and Rogers(1995).The model supposes comparative technology differences and different intraregional and interregional trade costs and argues how different factors influence location of industrial value added.By processing the designed model,equations were set up to check whether the conclusions from our mathematical model are credible under panel data at the provincial level of China from 1995 to 2014.We find that location of industrial value added in a region is strongly related to infrastructure and local market size while geographical location of a region is an important determinant for deciding which factor should be handled first.