Measurement of Regional Economic Disparity among Eastern， Central and Western China.docVIP

Measurement of Regional Economic Disparity among Eastern， Central and Western China 　　Abstract. From the perspective of regional economics and in the light of classical theories and investigative actualities of regional economic disparity at home and abroad， the composite indicators including per capita index （per capita GDP and per capita income level of citizens）， static comparative index （relative difference and absolute difference） and coefficient index （coefficient of variation and coefficient of range） are applied to measure the economic disparity among eastern， central and western China from 2005 to 2010， which indicates that the regional economic disparity at this stage is still the core issue for regional economics research and economic development. 　　Key words： Eastern China； Central China； Western China； Economic disparity； Measurement 　　1. Theoretical basis of regional economic disparity 　　As a ranged space occupied by human for economic activity， region is a composite of several area units in accordance with homogeneous and functional criteria； as different regions have been developing at different speeds， the regional economic disparity comes into being， which is the non-equalization of economic development level among various regions throughout the country in a certain period. Regional economic disparity is an important research field and a significant theoretical component of regional economics. 　　1.1 Foreign classical theories 　　The regional economic disparity was studied very early in foreign countries， mainly distributed in growth theory of economics， trade theory， development economics， location theory and regional economics， etc. among which the best-known is the polarization theory in regional economics about the unbalanced growth of regional economy. The polarization theory developed under the condition that the neo-classical theory with increasingly exposed defects was criticized and questioned， whose methods and assertions were con