Measuring the spillover effects: Some Chinese evidence**I would like to thank Arthur Getis and Serge Rey for their invaluable help throughout my research period. I would also like to thank Helen Couclelis, Richard Church, Raymond Florax, and three anonymous referees for their very constructive critiques and valuable comments on earlier drafts of this article. My appreciation is further extended to Charlotte Cavell for her careful editing of the final manuscript. Any errors or omissions remain my responsibility

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.