ABSTRACT
This chapter attempts to systematically measure regional inequality within Guangdong between 1980 and 2008, and to investigate possible causes of the unbalanced regional development during the same period. It provides an in-depth overall estimation of regional economic development and spatial inequality within Guangdong during the reform period. Regional economic development within Guangdong continued to become more uneven during the 1990s. The study calculated the national income per capita and gross domestic product (GDP) coefficient of variation (CV) and the Gini coefficient for Guangdong's counties during the two separate sub-periods of 1980–90 and 1991–2008. Analysis of inequality indicators shows that the three selected Chinese provinces of Shandong, Henan and Guizhou experienced fluctuating upward trends of inter-county level economic inequality between 1980 and 2007. The comparisons based on Gini coefficient and CV for income per capita have both demonstrated that intra-regional disparity within Guangdong is remarkable.
