The “center of gravity” concept, like GNP or the general price level, may be regarded as an aggregate index which is produced by combining the level of economic activity with its location in a region. By means of this concept, we can therefore study the direction of regional development and the associated problems of balance, and evaluate the effectiveness of spatial policies.
This paper attempts to adopt a flexible approach in order to estimate the centers of gravity of economic activity in Mainland China for itself, two coastal-inland areas, six economic regions and twenty-nine provinces. Owing to a number of constraints, we emphasize the size and the direction of the changes in the centers of gravity and calculate the “spatial balance coefficients” without regard for the geographical location of the centers and without discussing any of the problems concerning spatial development policies in Mainland China.
