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.

An Evolutionary Economic Geography Perspective on Types of Operation Development in West Lake, China

The types of operation play a key role in facilitating tourism consumption and economic development in a tourism destination. By adopting evolutionary economic geography theory, the paper analyzes the types of operation in West Lake Scenic Area from 1978 to 2013. First, an evolution process consisting of four stages is underpinned, and they are: the new establishment stage, the preliminary development stage, the speedup development stage, and the stabilized maturity stage. Specifically, the distinct characteristics associated with operation types are compared and evaluated at different stages throughout the process. The evolution trees are introduced to scrutinize types of operation development. The results of evolution trees demonstrate the substantial increase in both numbers and types. Second, by applying GIS spatial analysis, the paper also analyzes the spatial evolution characteristics on the types of operation, and the results unveil the co-existence of centripetal and centrifugal forces: the processes of spatial agglomeration and spatial dispersion. More specifically, we recognize the spatial process includes the emergence of node and concentration(1978–1995), the sparse distribution and intensity reduction(1996–2002), the patchy distribution and spatial agglomeration intensification(2003–2008), the dispersed distribution and core area agglomeration(2009–2013). Lastly, path dependence on resource endowment, government and market innovation, knowledge learning and spillover can reasonably explain the types of operation evolution. In conclusion, the evolutionary economic geography theories provide new theoretical and empirical perspectives for tourism policy analysis. At the same time, our comprehensive evidences impart more comprehensive insights and offer useful managerial and policy implications.

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.

Emergy-based study on eco-economic system of arid and semi-arid region:a case of Gansu province,China

Taking Gansu province as a model case,this study provides an integrated analysis on the eco-economic system of arid and semi-arid region based on emergy synthesis theory. Through calculating the values of renewable emergy flow,non-renewable resources,imported emergy,exported emergy,waste emergy,and total emergy during the period of 1978-2007,the performance of Gansu eco-economic system was analyzed. The results indicated that the renewable emergy flow within the province basically remained steady state which was estimated at 2.99×1022 solar emjoules (sej) from 1978 to 2007. The imported emergy and exported emergy were estimated at 3.75×1017 sej and 2.99×1020 sej in 1978 and increased to 1.07×1022 sej and 1.44×1022 sej respectively in 2007. The nonrenewable emergy flow was estimated at 1.62×1022 sej and increased to 1.85×1023 sej,with annual growth rate of 8.7%,while the estimated total emergy was 4.58×1022 sej in 1978 and increased to 2.11×1023 sej in 2007,with annual growth rate of 5.41%. Our results indicate a deteriorate situation between economic development and environmental protection in the region. The rapid economic growth in the past thirty years was based on a great consumption of nonrenewable resource and caused continuous decrease in the capacity of sustainable development. The environmental loading ratio was 0.53 in 1978,increased to 6.06 in 2007,indicating a rapid degradation of the regional environment quality. We calculated that the actual population was 1.53 times the renewable resource population in 1978,increased to 7.06 times in 2007. During the period of 1978-2007,the emergy rose from 2.45×1015 sej/(capita·a) to 8.07×1015 sej/(capita·a). Our analysis revealed that the emergy density presented a trend of gradual increase,and then the emergy currency ratio in Gansu decreased from 7.08×1013 sej/Chinese Yuan to 7.82×1012 sej/Chinese Yuan.

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.

Economic Agglomeration Should Not Be Blamed for Widening Income Gaps in China

Agglomeration of economic activities is a common phenomenon across the world. Theoretical and empirical studies have shown that agglomeration promotes dynamic efficiency, which in turn is conducive to the long-term prosperity of a country＇s economy. Compared with most countries, in China is very low, and Chinese cities the spatial concentration of various industries are relatively small and equal-sized. Thus, it is unnecessary to contain the agglomeration of economic activities in China. Widening regional gaps since pro-market reforms and opening-up in China should be ascribed to institutional barriers rather than agglomeration. Therefore, China should refrain from containing agglomeration and instead focus on integrating product and factor markets and improving education and health care in less developed areas.

New Perspectives on Restructuring of Old Industrial Areas in China: A Critical Review and Research Agenda

The restructuring of old industrial areas has been receiving much attention in regional development studies both in industrialized and emerging economies. Although ample Chinese-speaking studies have been published on the topic, most of them suffer from paying too little attention to dynamic multi-scalar interactions between firms, institutions, policies and places, as well as a too strong focus on individual cases. They also mostly disregard internationally recognized concepts and theories in the field. Based on these internationally recognized modern concepts, this paper therefore puts forward some potential avenues for future research on the evolution of old industrial areas in China, which should overcome existing deficits in the Chinese-speaking literature. It suggests that some evolutionary economic geography concepts such as path dependence, lock-in, path creation, relatedness, as well as multi-scalar institutional and leadership approaches have useful potentials to better understand the evolutionary processes and mechanisms of old industrial areas in China.

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.

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.

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.

Progress in the micro-perspective studies of economic geography in China since 1980s

Micro-perspective studies on economic geography in China can be classified into geography of the enterprise, geography of the rural household, and small-scale studies on economic activities. Literature on geography of the enterprise includes spatial expansion of the enterprise, industrial location, firm's networks, industrial relocation, industrial clusters, and the relationship between industrial organizations and the environment. Studies on geography of the rural household(GRH) include the theoretical framework of GRH, the locations of rural economic activities, and the interrelation between rural households and geographical environment. Small-scale studies focus on human-land interaction from a land plot perspective, relations between specialized villages and the environment, and regional sustainable development research at site-specific scale. Micro-perspective studies on economic geography attempt to search for the basic unit of economic-geographical landscape, exploring the geographical process and the formation mechanism of geographical phenomena. The exploration of these three perspectives anticipates new approaches to economic-geographical studies with China's special background.

Regional Innovation Policies for High-Technology Firms： The Importance of the Cluster Life Cycle

The present work makes an in-depth analysis of an aspect not yet sufficiently examined by the studies into regional innovation systems, relating to why the policy makers must adopt regional innovation policies in accordance with the development cycle of the active clusters in the territory. The analysis carried out in the course of the work contributes towards understanding the validity of an evolutionary-type development model for which the regional innovation policies for the growth of high-tech firms should dynamically change in relation to the various cluster stages. The development model proposed provides a framework for the policy makers in order to state more efficiently through time the regional innovation strategies.

Research progress of industrial geography in China

The expansion and upgrading of Chinese industries have accompanied with the spatial restructuring process across the country. This paper provides a literature review on China's industrial geography, paying special attention to industrial agglomeration and industrial clusters. The increasing industrial agglomeration and development of industrial clusters have been the prominent characteristics of dynamics of industrial landscape in China. The major driving forces of China's industrial geography include economic globalization, decentralization and regional competition and rebuilding of regional advantages. This paper concludes with a discussion of future research focus.

Disciplinary structure and development strategy of human geography in China

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.

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.

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.