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Based on the interprovincial panel data of 2000-2014, this paper carries out an empirical analysis on the relationship between energy abundance and economic growth to test the theoretical hypothesis of 'resource curse' and explore its transmission mechanism for China and its three regions. The results show that, at the national level, positive correlation is present between energy abundance and economic growth, proving that the 'resource curse' phenomenon does not exist in China as a whole. Moreover, material capital input, human capital input and the level of opening to the outside world could promote economic growth, while technology innovation input may hinder economic growth. As seen by region, a positive correlation also exists between the energy abundance and economic growth in the eastern and western regions, and there is no 'resource curse' phenomenon either. In all three regions, the human capital input could promote economic growth. Material capital input could promote economic growth in the eastern but hinder economic growth in the western region; the level of opening to the outside world could promote economic growth in the eastern region. It is known through further survey and analysis on the transmission mechanism of resource curse that, at the national level, material capital input, human capital input, and the level of opening to the outside world present positive correlation with energy abundance, indicating that energy development becomes an important transmission factor by strengthening material capital input and human capital input and raising the level of opening to the outside world. However, technology innovation input presents negative correlation with energy development. As seen by region, both the material capital input and human capital input present positive correlation with energy development strength in the three regions. Similar as the eastern region, the level of opening to the outside world presents positive correlation with energy industry development in the middle and western regions; however, the energy development presents negative correlation with technology input level in the western region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As responses to metropolitan suburbanization and rural urbanization, the formation and evolution of urban fringes should be understood against the background of overall economic development and spatial reconstruction of entire metropolises. At the same time, however, endogenous interactions between industrial structure and spatial patterns of non-agricultural activities are also worthy of scholarly attention. Since the 1980s, studies on urban fringes in China have been restricted by the lack of micro-level data. This paper investigates the spatial expansion and structural evolution of the urban fringe by taking the case of Beijing and uses systematic firm-level data in 1996 and 2001 from the National Census of Basic Units. The diversity of distribution patterns across industrial sectors brings about two interrelated results. On the one hand, structural adjustment of non-agricultural industries promotes the expansion and spatial evolution of the urban fringe. On the other hand, the stability and dynamics of industrial structure coexist in the moving urban fringe. This study also reveals that the outward-moving urban fringe is the optimal location for manufacturing, especially heavy manufacturing, as well as traditional producer and consumer services. However, industries with spatial stickiness such as tourism and sports have not moved with the fringe. Most advanced services remain concentrated in the city center. The authors argue that it is essential for understanding and managing urban fringes to take into account spatial evolution and industrial structural adjustment together with their interaction with each other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Road to Rio+20 is the journey of countries in the world pursuing the sustainable development. As the first country to release the national Agenda 21, China's experience and lessons are of great significance for both China itself and other countries. The paper reviews the progress made and problems remained in pursuing the sustainable development in China with regard to policy formulation, institutional arrangements, planning and management. In the past five years, the mandatory targets-driven approach, which focused on energy efficiency and key pollutants reduction, played a very important role and made China comprehensive outcomes for sustainability. In order to achieve the targets, China adopted an integrated policy package including legal, administrative, economic and technology instruments. During the 12th Five-Year Plan period (2011-2015), China will continue and strengthen the approach above and mainstream the transformation of economic development pattern through realizing the idea of green and low-carbon development. By summarizing policy trends in the world, the paper points out two directions, i.e., integration approach and taking prioritized and concrete actions for a sustainable future beyond 2012. The paper also presents policy approaches and recommendations for sustainable development in the next 10 years in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China′s economy and transport infrastructure have both experienced rapid development since 1978, and especially since 1990. Today, China is the second-largest economic entity in terms of GDP and has the largest high-speed rail (HSR) network and the second-largest expressway network in the world. This paper explores the relationship between accessibility and economic growth in China from 1990 to 2010. In the study, the basic research units include 333 prefecture-level cities and four municipalities. We explore a bivariate analysis framework of accessibility and economic growth, and their increase rates, to examine this relationship using long-term panel data. The results indicate that, first, accessibility and economic growth show a significant positive relationship using both cross-section and panel data, while the increase rate in accessibility and GDP indicate no significant relationship using cross-section data and a poor significant relationship using panel data. Second, the distributions of local advantage are uneven. Cities with low local advantage with respect to accessibility and GDP are mainly located in China′s eastern coastal region or the provincial capitals, while those with low local advantage in terms of their increase rates are located in the western region. Third, as China′s economic growth and transport networks have evolved, the distribution of local advantage shows little change in terms of accessibility and GDP, but a greater change in terms of their increase rates, which is largely influenced by the distribution of expressway and HSR networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The majority of multinational enterprises (MNEs) traditionally originate from developed countries. In the last ten years, however, there has been dramatic growth in foreign direct investment (FDI) from China. It is a comparatively new phenomenon that challenges the classic FDI theories. In this paper, we review the pros and cons of two important theories, known as the Ownership-Location-Internalization (OLI) model and Linkage-Leverage-Learning (LLL) model, and use the statistical data and company case studies from China to test the plausibility of these two models. We believe that neither of them suits totally: the OLI model is quite useful for understanding FDI from China to developing economies, while the LLL model is more powerful for explaining the FDI to developed economies. We argue that the companies from China attain a very advantageous position as intermediates in the global economy. They may catch up with the first movers if they integrate OLI-led and LLL-led FDI within one firm. This combination can bring together the most advanced knowledge acquired in developed economies with the knowledge about adaptation needs and the needs for cost reduction in production as expressed in developing economies. It may also accelerate the knowledge transfer globally. We thus fill a gap in research into the geographical pattern of Chinese FDI and offer a deeper understanding of the internationalization of Chinese MNEs and revolving knowledge transfer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic clusters have been a central focus of current urban and regional research, policies and practices. However, a methodology to identify and analyze policy-relevant economic cluster dynamics is still not well developed. Based on input-output (I-O) data of 1987, 1992, 1997, 2002 and 2007 of Beijing, this article presents an adapted principle component analysis for identifying the evolution of local economic cluster patterns. This research addresses the changes of economic interaction of industries with complementary and common activities over time. The identified clusters provide an insight into the reality of economic development in a diversifying urban economy: the increasing importance of services and the growing interaction between service and manufacturing industries. Our method therefore provides the analysts with a better understanding of the emergence, disappearance and development of economic clusters citywide. The results could be used to assist monitoring urban economic development and designing more practical urban economic strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the advent of the era of big data and artificial intelligence, new infrastructure construction (NIC) has attracted the attention of many countries. The development of NIC provides an opportunity to bridge the digital divide and narrow the regional gap, providing continuous impetus to further promote economic development. Here, we considered 31 provincial-level administrative units in China (not including Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan of China due to data unavailable) and established comprehensive evaluation indicators for the development potential of NIC. Afterward, we used the entropy-weight TOPSIS model to determine the development potential of NIC and analyze its spatio-temporal evolution characteristics. Furthermore, the GeoDetector model was applied to explore the driving mechanism of the NIC development potential. The conclusions were as follows: 1) The Chinese NIC development potential is generally low. The eastern China was the region with the highest development potential year by year, while the development potential in the central China was found to be in an accelerating phase. 2) The evolution of the Chinese NIC development potential's spatial pattern has been characterized by an inland extension and coastal agglomeration. Moreover, we identified a superior development zone, a rising development zone, an inferior development zone, and a declining development zone. 3) The scope of Chinese NIC development potential agglomeration areas has gradually expanded and its degree has gradually deepened. The range of high-value agglomeration in eastern area gradually expanded and its degree gradually deepened. 4) Investment in innovative talents appears as the core factor affecting the Chinese NIC development potential. Whether acting alone or synergistically with other factors, its promoting effect on Chinese NIC development potential is the strongest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between China's urbanization and economic development (RCUED) is an important concern nationwide. As important actors in regional strategy and policy, county-level regions have played an increasingly significant role in the development of China's social economy. However, the existing research on the RCUED lacks the fine depiction of the county-level administrative units. Using 2000 and 2010 census data and the statistical analysis method, we uncovered the evolution characteristics of China's urbanization and economic development and conducted a quantitative identification for the RCUED with improved methods using the quadrant map approach. In addition, we investigated the spatial correlation effect of the RCUED using the spatial autocorrelation analysis method. The results were as follows: 1) In general, a high degree of matching exists between China's urbanization and economic development at the county level at the significance level of 0.01. The correlation coefficients between China's urbanization and economic development in 2000 and 2010 were 0.608 and 0.603, respectively. 2) A significant regional difference exists in the RCUED at the county level. Based on a comparative analysis of 2276 county units in China in the two years, we found that county units can be categorized as under-urbanized, basic coordination and over-urbanized in various areas. No situation was observed where urbanization seriously lagged behind the economic development level, so the levels of urbanization and economic development appear to be basically coordinated, and the coordination state may be gradually optimized over time. 3) Over time, the spatial dependency of the RCUED has weakened and the spatial heterogeneity has increased. Northeast China has always been an area characterized by over-urbanization. The number of county units classified as under-urbanized has begun to decline in eastern coastal urban agglomeration areas, while counties rich in resources have transformed from having point-shaped over-urbanization to plane-shaped under-urbanization along the northern border, and the number of over-urbanized county units has increased in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River. 4) 'Lag-lag' type and 'advance-advance' type accounted for 68% of all counties in China, and these counties were shown to have obvious spatial differentiation characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Smart urban development is an inevitable choice, and is essential to overall strength improvement. It is important to explore an urban smart development path which unites smart growth with driving shrinkage perfectly in forming scientific and sustainable development concept and responding to new normal strategic opportunities. Based on statistic data of 294 prefecture-level cities and above in China from 2000 to 2015, we analyzed spatial and temporal evolution of urban smart development in China by constructing a dynamic fitting model of urban land expansion, population growth, and economic development as well as the coefficient of variation of urban smart development (CVSD). Further efforts were then made to consider differential distribution regularity of urban smart development so as to understand the driving mechanisms of heterogeneous classification of urban smart development in China from different scales and scale variation. Our results indicate that: 1) the disordered growth tendency of urban cities in China is overall well controlled in the middle, and late research and it mainly presented a doublet coexistence of shrinkage disordered cities and smart developing cities. It is particularly obvious that Northeast China and East China have regarded shrinkage disordered cities and smart developing cities as main development tendency separately. 2) Areas with basic stability and relative variation were relatively dispersed across the time period, but the proportion was far beyond areas with significant variation. It demonstrates a relative equilibrium spatial and temporal differential evolution pattern of prefecture-level cities and above in China, except for Tongling, Lanzhou and Chaoyang. 3) prefecture-level cities and above in China are mostly characterized by shrinkage disordered and smart development classification under the background of different scale and scale variation from 2000-2015; however, the spatial resonance relation is not obvious. 4) There are many interaction factors forming an important driving mechanism in developing the spatial and temporal pattern of urban smart development in China, including natural geographical factors, industrial structure adjustment, human capital radiation, regional traffic accessibility, and government decision-making intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In post-reform China, local governments, instead of the central state, have become major promoters of urbanization. Differing from the existing literature based on Western theories, this article argues that a localized perspective, 'administrative urbanization', can provide a contextual explanation for the mechanism of urbanization in the reform era. The case study of Ordos indicates that new town construction, especially in the inland area, has become the main strategy for investment attraction and economic development. The local government has played a dominant role in this construction through a series of administrative measures, including avoidance of central state regulations, land leasing, high standard infrastructure construction, relocation policies and industrial attraction. This article also explores the issue of unsustainability in the new town, and identifies that underdeveloped industrialization, slow population agglomeration and real estate bubbles are primary threats to the sustainability of administrative urbanization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The economic growth of China has led to increasing growth disparities between regions. Such disparities are uncontrolled and are severely negative symptoms in the process of economic development. On the basis of system dynamics (SD) modeling and the relationship between industrial relocation and regional economic growth, we construct a model of the interrelationship between the two aforementioned phenomena. The model is an effective and creative exploration for examining effects of industrial relocation on Chinese regional economic growth disparities. The SD model is employed in this study to build an inter-regional labor migration SD model, an inter-regional capital migration SD model, an intra-industry SD model, an intra-regional population SD model, and an intra-regional SD model which are based on realities in labor and capital flow from the view of industrial relocation. VENSIM software is utilized to perform a system simulation based on the data of the eastern, middle, and western regions from 2000 to 2010. Results show that industrial relocation gradually narrows the relative disparity in GDP among the three regions. Moreover, the absolute one is enlarged continuously. The absolute and relative disparities in per capita GDP among eastern, middle, and western regions generally exhibit decreasing trends. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the last 30 years, China has witnessed rapid economic growth and dramatic urbanization, with about 1.2 × 10 rural people migrating annually into urban areas. Meanwhile, especially since 1995, the rural population has been declining, which is closely linked to land circulation and the increase in farm size in many villages. Increasing scale of farming operations is often regarded as a key to avoiding the abandonment of farmland and to increasing the income of rural farmers. However, until now, there has been little research on the spatial and temporal variability of farm size at the national level in China. Using data from the national agricultural census and rural household surveys, this study examines the characteristics of land use circulation and the consequent changes in the area of farmland per household. The results show that: 1) 12.2% of rural households were involved in land circulation at the national level. The highest amounts of land circulation have occurred in those provinces where the farmland per capita is more than 0.2 ha or less than 0.1 ha; 2) over 80% of households operate less than 0.6 ha of farmland; 3) the proportion of mid-sized farms (between 0.2 ha and 0.6 ha per household) has decreased while the smallest and the largest farms have increased. This bears some similarity with the phenomenon known as the 'disappearing middle', referring to the changes in farm size. This study establishes a framework for interpreting the factors affecting the changes in farm size in China, which include two promoting factors (urbanization and agriculture) and four hindering factors (agricultual land system, household registration, stable clan system, and farmland loss). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]