Title: An empirical study on regional disparity of R&D in China

Authors: Shouhua Wei, Xianjun Li, Guisheng Wu

Addresses: School of Business, Nanjing University, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China; Center for the Yangtze River Delta's Economic and Social Development of Nanjing University, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China. ' Department of Automotive Engineering, Tsinghua University, Peking, Beijing, China. ' Research Center for Technological Innovation, Tsinghua University, Peking, Beijing, China

Abstract: This paper aims to reveal the characteristics of spatial distribution and changing trend of regional R&D expenditure in China during 1998-2004. In doing so, the authors have analysed both regional total R&D expenditure and its two components, that is, governmental R&D and business R&D expenditures, by means of spatial concentration index, variation coefficient, Gini coefficient, etc. We found that: 1) regional total R&D expenditure has a constant spatial clustering during 1998-2004; 2) governmental R&D expenditure appears to be more agglomerative (than business R&D expenditure) with a tendency of spatial equilibrium; 3) while business R&D expenditure was initially less agglomerative, it is characterised with a tendency of more and more spatial non-equilibrium.

Keywords: regional disparity; R&D disparity; regional R&D expenditure; total R&D expenditure; government R&D expenditure; business R&D expenditure; China; research and development.

DOI: 10.1504/IJLIC.2010.034373

International Journal of Learning and Intellectual Capital, 2010 Vol.7 No.3/4, pp.344 - 359

Published online: 01 Aug 2010 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article