A disaggregate analysis of China's regional development

During the Chinese transitional period from a planned to a market economy, there were significant regional imbalances. On the one hand, we should admit that, given the vast size of China, regional disparities seem inevitable due to the unequal conditions seen historically; on the other hand, basing our judgment on China's outstanding economic performance, using only on its national average growth can be misleading. Such concern motivates this cumulative work. It consists of four research articles which delve deeply into the topics of regional development with particular focus on economic integration, regional inequality and growth, and political development. The first article explicitly examines the role of political and cultural boundaries as factors causing the fragmentation of economies within China based on prefectural level data. Following this finding, the second article continues the study and investigates further into the role of provincial capitals in the development of regional inequality and economic growth at an intra-provincial level in the context of spatial agglomeration. The third article further extends the research into inequality with a supplementary measure of economic polarization based on results from spatially customized schemes. Furthermore, given that previous studies have shown strong links between the politics and the economy in Chinese regions, the fourth article, which is contrary to the conventional view that delivering economic growth within jurisdiction is the most important criterion for cadres' promotions, tends to take a different perspective and investigates the importance of a political presence in China's regional development by examining the career trajectories of leading cadres.