ABSTRACT
Regional development is an important area of academic inquiry. Regional inequality in particular is one of the major concerns facing governments, as it reflects unequal opportunities among regions and may threaten national unity and social stability (Smith 1995; World Bank 1997). 1 Regional development and inequality are of particular importance to the developing countries that inherited regional imbalances as a result of colonialism, and to former socialist countries that demanded, as a point of ideology, a reduction in regional inequality. Even in developed countries, such as the United Kingdom, Italy, and Canada, regional inequality has received considerable attention (Martin 1988; Higgins and Savoie 1995). The trends of and forces underlying regional inequality have been the subject of heated debate. Questions whether regional inequality was reduced in former socialist countries and whether economic reforms have intensified regional inequality have generated considerable research. Indeed, spatial issues are the traditional areas of interest, especially for geographers and planners, but have attracted broad interests in economics, geography, political science, sociology, and history (e.g., Parsons 1988; Storper and Walker 1989; Porter 1990; Krugman 1991, 1995; Plestina 1992).
