The Role of Infrastructure Investment Location in China's Western Development

Development of the western region is vital to the balanced growth of China. The author studies the impacts of infrastructure investment that may most efficiently alleviate the burden of geographical remoteness of the West. Having constructed the �adjusted distance� to approximate the transport cost, which takes into account the effects of real distance and infrastructure development, the author defines the �peripheral degree� to measure the effective remoteness of a province to an economic center. Using panel data for 1979�99 from the Chinese provinces, she shows that geographic attractiveness plays a significant role in a Solow-type growth determination model. Given the invariability of pure geographic position, progress in transportation facilities is essential to reduce the geographic handicap and to encourage the catching-up of the western region. The author�s simulation results show that the central transportation hubs (Hubei, Henan, and Hunan) merit most infrastructure investments, for they favor the development of many provinces, if regional balanced growth is considered as the prime objective. In particular, improvement in the transportation facilities in central hubs will have greater effects on western development than that in the western region by itself. Improvements in the transportation facilities of the central hubs substantially improves the geographic attractiveness of the western region by reducing the transport cost from the West to the Coast and by promoting the emergence of new economic centers in such hubs, which tends to modify the national economic geographic structure.

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Xubei Luo
Language:English
en_US
Published: World Bank, Washington, D.C. 2004-06
Subjects:INFRASTRUCTURE INVESTMENTS, GEOGRAPHICAL BALANCE, GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION, PANEL DATA SETS, TRANSPORT COSTS, TRANSPORT FACILITIES, REGIONAL GROWTH AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIVITY, ANNUAL GROWTH, ANNUAL GROWTH RATE, AVERAGE GROWTH, AVERAGE LEVEL, BILATERAL TRADE, CLIMATE, COMPARATIVE ADVANTAGES, CONVERGENCE, DEPENDENT VARIABLE, DEVELOPMENT GOALS, DOMESTIC MARKET, ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES, ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY, ECONOMIC GROWTH, ECONOMIC GROWTH RATE, ECONOMIC PERFORMANCE, ECONOMIC REFORM, ECONOMIC SIZE, ESTIMATION RESULTS, EXPORT PERFORMANCE, EXTERNAL POLICY, FIXED EFFECTS, FOREIGN MARKETS, GDP, GDP PER CAPITA, GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT, GROWTH PATTERN, GROWTH PROSPECTS, GROWTH RATE, GROWTH RATES, GROWTH THEORY, HUMAN CAPITAL, INFRASTRUCTURE INVESTMENT, INTEREST RATE, INTERNAL TRADE, INTERNATIONAL MARKETS, INVESTMENT LOCATION, INVESTMENT POLICIES, INVESTMENT RATE, INVESTMENT RATIO, LIQUIDITY, LOCAL PRODUCTION, LONG RUN, MARGINAL RETURN, MARKET ACCESS, MARKET ENLARGEMENT, NEGATIVE EFFECT, NEGATIVE SIGN, NEOCLASSICAL GROWTH MODEL, OPTIMIZATION, POLICY CHANGE, POLICY RESEARCH, PRIVATE INVESTMENT, PRODUCTION FUNCTION, PRODUCTION STRUCTURE, PROFIT MARGIN, PROGNOSIS, RAPID GROWTH, REAL GDP, REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT, REGIONAL DIFFERENCES, REGIONAL ECONOMY, REGIONAL GROWTH, REGIONAL MARKET, RELATIVE IMPORTANCE, SOCIAL STABILITY, TECHNOLOGICAL PROGRESS, TRADE PARTNERS, TRADE VOLUME, TRANSPORT COST, UNDERDEVELOPMENT,
Online Access:http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2004/06/4984776/role-infrastructure-investment-location-chinas-western-development
https://hdl.handle.net/10986/14182
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