IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wsi/adrxxx/v42y2025i02ns0116110525400086.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Geographically Heterogeneous Spatial Inequality in the People’s Republic of China: A Luminosity-Based Analysis of Prefectural Cities and Counties

Author

Listed:
  • YILIN CHEN

    (Graduate School of International Development, Nagoya University, Nagoya, Japan)

Abstract

This study examines regional income and inequality in the People’s Republic of China from 2001 to 2020 using high-quality nighttime light (NTL) data to help proxy for the gross domestic product (GDP). The NTL-based dataset for 332 Chinese prefectural cities and 2,813 county-level units that integrates GDP with luminosity measurements reveals three key facts: (i) Inequality derived from luminosity-based GDP data aligns more closely with the official GDP-based inequality trends, showing no clear downward trend, unlike the luminosity data alone; (ii) spatial dependence significantly influences patterns of economic development and economic disparities; and (iii) there is a geographic heterogeneity in spatial spillovers, with stronger agglomeration effects only in coastal areas where these effects promote economic development and reduce inequality. These insights highlight the varied impacts of regional development strategies for achieving common prosperity in the People’s Republic of China’s coastal, central, western, and northeastern regions.

Suggested Citation

  • Yilin Chen, 2025. "Geographically Heterogeneous Spatial Inequality in the People’s Republic of China: A Luminosity-Based Analysis of Prefectural Cities and Counties," Asian Development Review (ADR), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 42(02), pages 55-81, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:wsi:adrxxx:v:42:y:2025:i:02:n:s0116110525400086
    DOI: 10.1142/S0116110525400086
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.worldscientific.com/doi/abs/10.1142/S0116110525400086
    Download Restriction: Open Access
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1142/S0116110525400086?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    nighttime light; People’s Republic of China; regional heterogeneity; regional inequality; spatial dependence;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E01 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - General - - - Measurement and Data on National Income and Product Accounts and Wealth; Environmental Accounts
    • O10 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - General
    • R12 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Size and Spatial Distributions of Regional Economic Activity; Interregional Trade (economic geography)

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wsi:adrxxx:v:42:y:2025:i:02:n:s0116110525400086. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Tai Tone Lim (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.worldscientific.com/worldscinet/adr .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.