Public Services Equalization in Urbanizing China: Indicators, Spatiotemporal Dynamics and Implications on Regional Economic Disparities

Zekun Li, Shenjing He, Shiliang Su (), Guie Li and Fei Chen
Additional contact information
Zekun Li: Wuhan University
Shenjing He: The University of Hong Kong
Shiliang Su: Wuhan University
Guie Li: Wuhan University
Fei Chen: Guangzhou Urban Planning and Design Survey Research Institute

Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, 2020, vol. 152, issue 1, No 1, 65 pages

Abstract: Abstract Public services equalization is closely related to local economic and social development. Hence, it is crucial to explore the changing dynamics of public services equalization and its correlation with regional economic disparities. We first examine the changing spatiotemporal patterns of public services provision and local economic performance at the provincial level across China from 2003 to 2017, using a set of indicators and the Mann–Kendall test. It is found that different types of public services are divergent in both temporal trend and geographical locations. However, both income and expenditure have been significantly increased for all provinces during the study period. Second, we unravel the heterogeneous relationship between public services provision and local economy across time and space using the geographically and temporally weighted regression. Variance decomposition is further employed to quantify the relative contribution of public services provision to local economy. Results show that the impact of different types of public services on local economic system is divergent, which jointly affects local economy system together with political and other economic factors. Thirdly, we use the Theil index and traditional least square regression to further examine the relationships between public services equalization and regional economic disparities. We find that public services equalization is correlated with regional economic disparities at the national level, yet their interrelation varies significantly in different regions. Taken together, through revisiting the role of public services equalization in regional economic disparities and unpacking its geographical and temporal heterogeneity, this study fills salient research gaps and informs policymaking towards a long-term goal of social equalization.

Keywords: Public service; Social equalization; Geographically and temporally weighted regression; Theil index; Regional economic disparity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (13)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11205-020-02405-9 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:soinre:v:152:y:2020:i:1:d:10.1007_s11205-020-02405-9

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/11135

DOI: 10.1007/s11205-020-02405-9

Access Statistics for this article

Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement is currently edited by Filomena Maggino

More articles in Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().