The economic impact of spatial organizational structures on the provincial border-regions of China

Based on the spatial organizational structures of the provincial border-regions (a border-region is one which borders two or more independent administrative regions), we build a spatial economic model for N-provincial border-regions (a N-p border-region is one which is under the jurisdiction of N provincial governments) and find that, for a given region with same geographical condition and resources endowment, the largest output of a N-p border-regional system will not exceed that of a (N-1)-p border-regional system, i.e., F₁*>F₂*...>F_N−1*>F_n*. Using the model in this paper, we present a quantitative method to calculate the economic impacts of "provincial borders" and apply it to the border-region of Shanxi, Hebei, Shangdong, and Henan provinces. The results shows that the economic potential in the border-region has not been efficiently exploited and that the annual gross agricultural products have decreased by 10.4% due to the 4-p borders. Financial supports from China National Science Foundation and National Social Science Foundation are graterfully acknowledged.