Geography and regional development in China

Studienarbeit aus dem Jahr 2005 im Fachbereich VWL - Fallstudien, Länderstudien, Note: 1,7, Universität Hamburg (Department Wirtschaftswissenschaften), Veranstaltung: Economic growth and development in China, Sprache: Deutsch, Abstract: The economic growth of China impresses the world; and some country fear about this, because firms displace there production from these countries to china. But China is only the last step in an array of development countries from East / Southeast Asian region. After the fast development of Japan after World War II, the so called tiger countries , South Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, highlight from the 60s on with high rates of economic growth and later the second generation of tiger countries also (e.g. Malaysia, Indonesian and Thailand). And now China! A country of 9.5 Million square mile can¿t growth on whole with the same rate. The effect is an increase in the disparity of regional incomes and still increase with the boost at the rates of economic growth. But what are the reasons for the regional differences in economic growth and the regional disparity. One reason could be the preferential policies in the eastern regions. These policies are specially prepared to attract foreign companies. A second reason, that is current discuss in the scientific world, could the geographical characteristics. The differences in the distance to the coast or navigable river, the climate or the slope could explain variable development. This paper wants to illuminate especially the second reason as a possible answer for unequal regional development and regional disparity, but policy and geography are often the same. So it is important to show the link between these possible reasons and the policies with regional impacts. There are different publications about the geographical implication on economic growth in china in the last years, based on different models. The intention is to compare these papers and highlight the differences. The first chapter handles the historical economic development of the last years in china and wants to show the actual situation. The development especially in policy terms, the change to a market-orientated economy, could already explain many disparities. The third chapter illuminate the regional inequality in China, there development, the theories of convergence and want to give a first answer for the different growth rates. Then we will look to the geography and their effects to Chinese growth rates and at least we make an outlook on future development base on polarization theory.