This study analyses domestic market integration’s (DMI’s) dynamic influence on regional economic growth in China. The authors construct a matrix of annual DMI indices for 29 provinces for 1997–2015. They calculate the reciprocal matrix and combine it with the β-convergence model and spatial econometrics to analyse the relationships between DMI and regional economic growth. Their findings indicate that the relation between these two variables is not straightforward, and 2004 was a tipping-point year. Before 2004, the statistical relationship between DMI and regional economic growth was downward sloping, which suggests a trend of divergence and negative spillover effects across the 29 provinces. After 2004, the relationship between DMI and regional economic growth becomes positive: increased DMI now is strengthening (regional) economic growth. The authors provide the possible explanations for the unstable relationship combined with China’s reality as well.@en

Effective transport infrastructure planning requires ample knowledge of the impacts of road infrastructure provision on manufacturing locations. This study seeks to disentangle the dynamic causal relationship between road infrastructure and manufacturing agglomeration in Northeast China from 2000 to 2010 under the framework of a panel data vector auto-regression (PVAR) model. The results indicate that lane-mile additions of intra-provincial road infrastructure may increase the industrial concentration in the central municipalities of the northeastern region, and this effect will grow stronger over the years. Our results also confirm the ambiguous effects of improvements in inter-provincial road facilities on manufacturing agglomeration. Moreover, road infrastructure construction, both intra- and inter provincial roads, was clearly not influenced by the location of prior manufacturing firms. Important policy implications appear from our findings for further decision making on road infrastructure expanding or planning in Northeast China, and other less developed regions worldwide with a similar economic and political environment.@en