对中国第一农业大省河南的乡镇数据分析表明。地理因素对农区经济发展具重要影响。在较低经济发展水平的乡镇,地形和农业资源条件具有显著的影响;而在相对较高经济发展水平的乡镇,地理位置以及与此相伴生的基础设施条件的影响更为显著。模型分析表明,地形显著影响乡镇的人均收入,而且随着收入的增加,其影响程度递减。人均土地面积显著影响非农产业发展水平较低的乡镇的人均收入。对非农产业比重低于20%的乡镇,人均土地每增加1hm^2,人均收入就增加约96元。地理位置影响着相关农区经济的发展,尤其是对收入较高的农区的影响十分明显。全省高收入乡镇的70%集中在河南中部地区,正好与中原城市群的空间范围相吻合。就单个乡镇而论,离县城的距离显著影响高收入乡镇的人均收入。地理因素对欠发达农区经济发展影响处于变动之中。随着经济水平的提高,传统地理因素(如地形、农业资源因素等)的影响逐渐被对经济积聚有明显影响的地理临近性等要素的影响所取代。因此,不能简单的认为地理因素对经济发展的影响在下降。
Existing literature on rural regional development in China has paid little attention to the studies in small geographical scales. This study uses the data on 1736 township level administrative areas from an interior province of Henan, the largest and less developed agricultural province in China, to examine how geography plays the role in determining economic development in rural areas. The result indicates that geography still plays a significant role in rural development. Landform and other agricultural resources significantly affect economic development in the areas at the lower stage of growth, while the geographical location shows more significant impact in the areas with the relatively high income level. Quantitative analysis further reveals that the landform of a township village affects its income at a high significance level; the significance will reduce as the income in the village increases. Arable land per capita contributes significantly to the income in the villages with weak non-agricultural industries. For the villages with less than 20% of non-agricultural industries in its total economies, an increase in one hectare of arable land per capita will add 97 yuan to per capita income. In terms of geographic location, however, the impact is significant in the high income villages. Over 70% of the township villages in the high income group are concentrated in the central region of Henan province, where the nine major cities of the province are located. For an individual township village in the high income group, it is found that the distance from its county seat significantly explains its income level. An increase of one kilometer from the county seat will generate a decrease of 8 yuan in average income per capita. The study further concludes that the role of geographical factors is changing over time. Along with the economic development, the geographical proximity replaces the traditional geographical factors such as landform and physical resources as the major determining factors in regional developm