Economic Growth and Regional Income Inequality: The Case of Asian Economies

本研究考察了东亚国家的区域收入不平等。自20世纪80年代中期以来，对收敛假设的实证研究如雨后春笋般涌现。趋同假说认为，就人均收入水平而言，穷国往往会赶上富国。许多实证研究使用跨国数据检验了这一假设，并找到了支持它的证据，尽管他们通常在“收敛”之前加上“有条件的”限定词。条件趋同意味着，只要穷国具有相似的经济特征（如人力资本水平），它们在人均收入水平上往往会赶上富国。东亚经济体似乎是穷国追赶富国的好例子。这种现象在国家内部各区域之间是否相同？如果说市场机制的内在功能是改善空间单元之间的收入差距，那么区域收入差距也应该消失。由于一个国家内的地区比不同国家的地区具有更相似的特征，我们不应该在趋同之前加上“有条件的”限定词。然而，对东亚经济区域趋同的研究却很少。分析的主要结果如下：首先，只有韩国（1988-1996）表现出区域趋同的趋势。另一个时期，韩国和其他国家完全没有趋同。第二，除1988 ~ 1996年韩国以外，各国首都地区与其他地区的差距仍然存在。以上几点提供了反对收敛假设的重要证据。这些结果表明，市场机制在本质上并不能改善空间单元间的收入差距。

This research examines regional income inequalities in the East Asian countries. Empirical studies on the convergence hypothesis have mushroomed since the mid-1980s. The convergence hypothesis proposes that poor countries tend to catch up with rich ones in terms of the level of per capita income. Many empirical studies examine the hypothesis using cross-country data and find support for it, although they generally add the qualifier "conditional" before "convergence." Conditional convergence means that poor countries tend to catch up with rich ones in terms of the level of per capita income as long as they have similar economic characteristics, such as the level of human capital.East Asian economies seem to represent good examples of poorer countries catching up with richer countries. Is this phenomenon the same among regions within the countries? If market mechanisms intrinsically function to improve income disparities among spatial units, regional income disparities also ought to disappear. Since regions within a country have characteristics more similar than those of different countries we should not add the qualifier "conditional" before convergence. There are, however, quite few studies on regional convergence in East Asian economies.Major results of the analysis are as follows. First, only Korea (1988-1996) shows thd tendency of regional convergence. The other period for Korea and other countries show no convergence at all. Second, disparity between the capital region and other regions in every country persists, except in Korea for 1988-1996.The above points provide important evidence against the convergence hypothesis. These results suggest that market mechanisms do not intrinsically function to improve income disparities among spatial units.