梯度理论综述

作为区域经济学的主要理论之一-梯度理论自20世纪70年代创立以来受到了诸多经济学家的关注,其理论基础也得以不断完善和巩固。该理论自20年世纪80年代初引入我国以来,在我国的经济战略制定中发挥了很重要的作用。随着其在我国经济社会中的实践,它也经历了传统(狭义)梯度理论、反梯度理论、广义梯度理论等诸阶段的演变,而每一个理论发展阶段都是对已有理论的重新审视和扬弃。以梯度理论的产生、发展演变为脉络,围绕该理论在不同发展阶段的代表性观点进行了归纳、总结梳理,并对传统(狭义)梯度理论、反梯度理论、广义梯度理论进行了简单评论。

A SUMMARY OF THE GRADS THEORY

As one of the main theories of regional economy, grads theory attracted a good many of economists' attraction after its naissance in 1970s. It is growing more and more stronger day by day.
Grads transfer theory originally came from Vernon's industrial production stage of the life cycle theory. The theory holds that industrial departments and various industrial products are all in different life-cycle stages of development. They're the stages of innovation, development, maturity and decline. Thereafter, the Prince and Hexizhe validated strengthened and developed the theory. Regional economists introduced this theory to regional economics, resulting the transfer regional economic development gradient theory. The theory believes innovation activities are the determining factors of the level of regional development gradient, and most innovative activities are in high gradient areas. With the passage of time and changes in the life cycle stages of production, activities gradually transfer from the high gradient areas to the low gradient regions, and this gradient transfer processes primarily through multi-level expansion of the city system.
The Grads Theory was introduced to China in 1980s, and is holding more and more attraction. It has mainly gone through Traditional Grads Theory (in narrow sense), Inverse Grads Process Theory, generalized Grads Process Theory, and so on. Traditional Grads Theory mainly holds the idea that economic technology is surely developed with different steps, and objectively causes the economic grads, then the productivity transformation happens from the high grads to the lower grads. Inverse Grads Process Theory supports the traditional grads theory and further come up with the idea that underdeveloped region also exerts its own advantage, forms higher industry distribution grads, inversely transfers to the traditional centre and drives the middle regions' development. Based on the whole system that contains nature, economy, soiety, human, ecosystem and institution with complex domestic relationship, Generalized Grades Process Theory starts a new stage.
This theory, as its practicability and validity, played a very important role in establishing our countries' economy strategies. Gradient transfer theory also has some limitations, which are mainly hard to scientifically divide gradient, it is possible to cause solidification of each region and the more and more serious development gap between regions.
This paper takes the development process as the clue to summarize the representative points in different times and gives comments on the above theories in the end.