The Correlation between Regional Economic Growth and Local Government Innovations: An Inter-case Analysis of the Differences between Chinese Local Governments

In regional economic development, why are the Chinese local governments' roles so different? Applying the quantitative method, we have compared the nominees of the five China Local Government Innovation Awards (2001-2010) and analyzed the inter-regional, inter-category and cross-year data of these nominees to probe into the correlation between the economic growth and the local government innovations in the eastern, central and western regions of China. The number of innovations of the local governments in the eastern region is far above that in the western and the central regions, and the number is greater in the urban area than in the rural area, both of which indicate the relationship between innovative ideas and economic growth. There is a significant inter-regional difference in the innovation types. The eastern region, with a higher level of economic development, centers around administrative innovations to meet the demand of market institutional development. One strong incentive to the political innovat