Differences and Spatial Polarization of County Economy in Gansu Province

Wang Xiaowen， Du Xin

Abstract: The research of this paper takes the county economy of Gansu Province as the research object and divides it into five economic zones: central Gansu, eastern Gansu, southern Gansu, Hexi and ethnic economy. Based on the measurement of the county economic development index, an empirical study on the city economic changes and spatial polarization in Gansu Province from 2006 to 2015 is conducted by using the Gini coefficient, the Theil index and the polarization index. The findings show that the differences in county economic development and spatial polarization in Gansu Province are accompanied by the fluctuant evolution of “shrinking-expanding-shrinking”. The secondary industry, the tertiary industry and the differences within each zone are the key factors leading to the change of the county economy differences. The industrial structure effect and industrial concentration effect are comparatively stronger, while the polarization of county economic development is mainly manifested by the remarkably increased spatial polarization effect among the five zones.

Key words: county economy; spatial polarization; Gansu Province; Gini coefficient; Thail index; polarization index model