Research of Regional Development in the Inner Region of China : An Interdisciplinary Analysis

我们于2002年12月和2003年3月和11月在四川省广元市进行了实地调查。补充野外研究于2003年8月在新疆维吾尔自治区喀什市和2003年12月在四川省南充市进行。此外，我们还于2004年11月4-5日在四川省都江堰市召开了一次国际研讨会，并发表了一系列国内文章。研究结果揭示了四个新发现：1.全球化进程加剧了中国内陆和沿海地区的区域差距。特别是对于内陆中小城市来说，这已经成为一种严峻的形势。增加政府对基础设施的投资并不总是能够缩小差距。2.中部地区县、乡、村三级政府面临四个严重问题。它们是：(1)严峻的财政形势，几乎所有的政府预算都用来支付S的…(2)缺乏正规来源的预算；(3)严重的累积债务；(4)缺乏人力和物力来开展医疗和教育等公共服务。3.显而易见，教育支出在发达地区发挥的作用是重要的。虽然有必要将教育支出的财政负担从乡镇政府转移到县级政府，以保持贫困地区的教育水平，但政策制定者必须高度重视如何提高教育回报率，以更好地有效利用有限的资源。4.我们发现，关于促进土地交易的激励政策存在新的争议。虽然由于全球化，城乡之间的循环移民有所增加，但将土地经营权转让给活跃的农民，对于更有效地利用未开垦的土地变得更加重要。然而，根据我们的实地调查，农业回报率太低，这些转移在改善农田利用方面效果不佳。本次调查主要集中在县级政府、企业和中介组织的活动。它使我们敏锐地认识到，我们需要用微观经济学来分析村级政府和农户如何决定生产和消费。这样的进一步研究是有必要的。较少

We conducted the field studies in Guangyuan city, Sichuang province, in December 2002, and March and November 2003. The supplementary field studies were done in Kaxgar city, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, in August 2003, and in Nanchong city, Sichuan province, in December 2003. In addition we held an international symposium at Dujiangyan city, Sichuang province, on November 4-5, 2004 and we published a collection of articles in China.The results of our research revealed four new findings.1.The process of globalization has increased regional disparity between inner and coastal region in China. It has become a critical situation for medium and small-sized cities in inner region in particular. More government investment in infrastructure has not always been able to narrow the gap.2.There were four serious problems which county, town and village governments in the inner region faced. They were : (1)a severe financial situation where almost all of the government budgets had gone to pay s … More alaries, a situation called "Chi fan cai zheng"; (2)lack of budgets from formal sources ; (3)severe cumulative debt ; and (4)lack of man power and materials to perform public services like medical care and education.3.It became clear that the role which education spending plays in developing area is important. While it was necessary to transfer the financial burden for disbursement of education from township and village governments to county governments to maintain the standard of education in poor areas, policy makers must pay considerable attention to how to increase rate of returns to education to better utilize limited resources effectively.4.We found new controversies about the policy of incentives to promote land transactions. While circular migration between rural and urban areas has increased because of globalization, the transfer of land operation rights to active farmers has become more important for a more effective use of uncultivated lands. However, according to our field studies, the rate of return on agriculture is so low that these transfers have been ineffective in improving farmland use. As a result, the amount of neglected farmland increased.This survey focused mainly on the activities of county governments, enterprises and intermediate organizations. It made us keenly realize that we need to use microeconomics in order to analyze how village governments and rural households determine production and consumption. Such further studies are needed. Less