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China's regional inequality has been a hot research topic lately and most of the literature focuses on economic development. Since 1990, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) has devised a measure known as the human development index (HDI) by combining measures of income, education and health. A major concern about HDI is that it is a national average measurement that ignores disparities within a country. This paper aims to explore China's regional inequality under the human development framework with three objectives: ( i) to calculate provincial HDI in 1990, 2000 and 2008; ( ii) to detect the spatial distributions of HDI as well as its three component indices; and ( iii) to reveal the influence of China's transitions on regional human development. GIS and statistical methods such as coefficient of variation, Moran's I, and spatial regression are used in this study. The results illustrate that the overall disparity in HDI declined, but the spatial concentration increased; and the multiple transitions determined the changing patterns of human development. This research provides a broader context for studying China's regional development and has important policy implications. Resumen. La desigualdad regional en China ha sido un tema candente de investigación en los últimos tiempos, centrándose la mayoría de la literatura en el desarrollo económico. Desde 1990, el Programa de Naciones Unidas para el Desarrollo (PNUD) ha venido desarrollando un indicador conocido como el Índice de Desarrollo Humano (IDH), que combina indicadores de ingresos, educación y salud. Una gran preocupación acerca del IDH es que es un indicador promedio a escala nacional, que no tienen en cuenta las diferencias dentro de un país. Este trabajo busca explorar la desigualdad regional de China dentro del marco del desarrollo humano, atendiendo a tres objetivos: (i) calcular el IDH provincial en 1990, 2000 y 2008; (ii) detectar distribuciones espaciales del IDH, así como de los tres indicadores que lo componen; y (iii) revelar la influencia de transiciones en China en cuanto al desarrollo humano regional. En este estudio se utilizan SIG y métodos estadísticos tales como el coeficiente de variación, el índice I de Moran, y la regresión espacial. Los resultados muestran que la disparidad total del IDH disminuyó, al tiempo que aumentó la concentración espacial, y que las múltiples transiciones han significado cambios en los patrones de desarrollo humano. Esta investigación ofrece un contexto más amplio para el estudio del desarrollo regional de China y conlleva importantes implicaciones políticas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Empirical research on the determinants of regional economic development typically neglects the influence of culture. This study fills that gap by attempting to establish a causal linkage between culture and economic development in the Chinese context. Our empirical analyses are based on a comprehensive economic statistics of China's provinces and prefectures during 1978 to 2008. We use Protestantism as a proxy for culture because Protestant ethic has been linked to the spirit of capitalism and commercial culture in Weber's famous work. To isolate the exogenous variation in culture measure, historical Protestant dissemination is employed as instruments. The estimation results suggest that Christian commercial culture has a significantly positive impact on economic performance - per capita GDP after other important influences (i.e., capital, population, human resources, institutional quality, trade, infrastructure, geography, etc.) are controlled for. We also find heterogeneous effects of culture on economic development in different regions of China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]