A Geospatial Analysis of Multi-scalar Regional Inequality in China

　　The study of regional inequality h'as attracted numerous attentions of geographers and economists. The interdisciplinary research has been reflected in a spatial-temporal hierarchical structure， that is， the multi-scalar nature of econorruc convergence and the temporal dynamics of geographical inequality. With the support of big databases， the integration of these two growing fields provides opportunities for a spatially integrated social saence. Therefore， this paper aims to explore this long-debated issue from two novel perspectives. On the one hand， the newly available county-level dataset will be employed to reexamine the three major issues of economic inequality and then a comparative analysis at the county level， city level and provincial level will be conducted to study the scale nature of economic inequality. On the other hand， the spatial data exploratory analysis as well as the geospatial analysis provides a new methodological framework to study the spatial effects of economic development. Three major research issues regarding to the temporal trend， global and local spatial pattern and the multi-scalar mechanisms of regional inequality have been reexamined at three different spatial scales using the geospatial analysis.

　　贺三维（He Sanwei），is currently an associate professor in Zhongnan University of Econonucs and Law. She gotbachelors' degree and master's degree in the major of geography respectively in 2009 and 2011. In 2015， she graduated from the Chinese University of Hong Kong and obtained Doctor of Philosophy. Her research background is about urban and regional development and transport geography. She was the principle investigator in three projects including national natural saence fund， postdoctoral fund and Hubei social saence fund and was the co-principle investigator in many other national funds. Meanwhile she has published over 20 articles in the Chinese journals such as Scientia Geographica Sinica and Journal of Natural Resources， and also in Englishjournals such as Geoforum. Landscape and Urban Plann/ng. Geomorphology.

Chapter 1 Introduction
1．1 Research background
1．2 Research objectives
1．3 Theoretical significance and practical importance
1．4 Organizational structure
Chapter 2 A Theoretical Framework for Multi-scalar Regional Inequality in China
2．1 Pivotal concepts and approaches
2．2 Theoretical debates about regional development in the changing world
2．3 Methodological advances in the field of regional development
2．4 Theoretical and empirical analyses about regional inequality in China
2．5 Comparative spatio-temporal framework for multi-scaiar economic inequality in China
2．6 Conclusions
Chapter 3 Data and Methodology
3．1 The study area
3．2 Data description and processing
3．3 Methodology
3．4 Conclusions
Chapter 4 The Temporal Trend of Multi-scalar Regional Inequality
4．1 The temporal trend of multi-scalar regional inequality
4．2 The decomposability of multi-scalar regional inequality
4．3 The ergodic distribution of multi-scalar regional inequality
4．4 Conclusions
Chapter 5 Spatial Dynamics of Multi-scalar Regional Development
5．1 Global spatial structures of regional development
5．2 Local spatial structures of regional development
5．3 Local spatial patterns of regional development in seven national urban agglomerations
5．4 Spatial distributional dynamics of multi-scalar regional development
5．5 Conclusion
Chapter 6 Exploring Driving Factors Underlying the Multi-scalar Regional Inequality
6．1 Model design
6．2 An indicator system of driving factors underlying regional development
6．3 Model specifications
6．4 Result explanations and interpretations
6．5 Policy implications
6．6 Conclusion
Chapter 7 Discussion and Conclusion
Appendix
References
Postscript