Measuring the spillover effects: Some Chinese evidence

Based on recently developed methods of exploratory spatial data analysis, this article seeks to prove the desired spread effects in the Chinese space economy from a core-periphery perspective. Recently developed methods of exploratory spatial data analysis provide new insights on the spatial pattern of the interaction of Chinese provincial output growth rates over the 1978-1994 period. Findings indicate that the economic spillover effects are most-evident at the first order of province contiguity from Guangdong, where the two coastal provinces of Hainan and Guangxi are identified with a significant spread pattern, while non-coastal provinces Hunan and Jiangxi are observed with a strong polarization pattern. A further analysis indicates that the state preferential policies favoring the coastal region are the fundamental force in determining the direction of spread-polarization processes in the Chinese space economy. This finding confirms Friedmann's hypothesis on spatial interaction, namely, that the spread process is a successful, diffusion of the core's existing institutions into the periphery.