Research Statement
Introduction
My research interests fall into the broad areas of economic geography, regional science, and GIS. The research questions that I usually ask are why certain economic activities, such as production or consumption, have particular types of spatial distributions, and what are those distributions’ possible causes and effects. These questions are important because the location of economic activities in any region, from those as large as a continent to those as small as a local community, is critical to its growth, development, and overall well-being. The theories I refer to in my research generally include neoclassic economic theories, new growth and trade theories, and new economic geography theories, and I believe my own research can expand the breadth and depth of those theories. The development of GIScience, in terms of spatial statistics and spatial analysis, has transformed research in this field greatly. It can fulfill a great amount of research potential that could not be achieved before, and I now rely heavily on GIS data and models in my research. Moreover, GIS has become another of my major research interests. Its new development will not only help improve the research in economic geography, but also has the potential to benefit the society as a whole. I am especially enthusiastic about the area of online mapping and web GIS applications and believe I can make contributions to this field as well.
Current Research
My particular research question in graduate school, that led to the topic of my dissertation, involves geographic concentration of manufacturing industries–its spatial measurement and its causes. Because China is at the center stage of the world’s manufacturing production today, I chose China to be my specific study area. The main dataset I use includes China’s firm–level annual industrial survey data which encompass all enterprises with annual sales above five million yuan. In my dissertation, I compare some indices used to measure the general degrees of industrial agglomeration, use a group of combination indices to improve the global measurement, and then employ the geographically weighted focal location quotient to identify production clusters of particular manufacturing industries. This part of my research led to a paper accepted by The Professional Geographer. The other part of my dissertation is about the causes of industrial agglomeration in China as indicated by using spatial econometric modeling. The focus is the impact of state activities, such as state capital and state subsidies that are critical in China’s national economic policies. This part has been developed as a paper that has been submitted for publication.
I have also extended my research beyond my dissertation. For example, I am working on examining and explaining the spatial variation of labor productivities in manufacturing industries in China. In this work I use spatial-temporal models to interpret the dynamics of the spatial variation of labor productivities. Overall, I believe my research can make contributions to the current literature in industrial location, uneven development between regions, and causes of growth and development, and I also would like to make contributions to improving research methods in spatial statistics and spatial analysis.
Future Research Plan
My future work may primarily focuses on industrial location and spatial and temporal dynamism of economic activities. I am still interested in China as the study area, but I also would like to conduct research making comparisons between China and the US. As China’s market transition continues, its economy more and more resembles western market–oriented economies. Therefore, making comparisons between these two big economies will greatly benefit current understanding the issues of industrial location and regional development. In addition, I think my research will also make empirical and theoretical contributions to the field of spatial statistics and spatial analysis. Also, better ways of measuring and interpreting industrial agglomeration can be extended to other research fields that deal with spatial data.
Besides my research within the field of economic geography and regional science, in the future I am interested in the field of GIS, especially web GIS. Web GIS is an emerging area of research with a bright future both in and outside of academic fields. I am now working on a web GIS application related to solar energy in cooperation with Connecticut’s Clean Energy Investment and Finance Authority, and the prospects of web GIS and its interesting nature draw me deeply into this field.
Summary
In summary, I believe my research on industrial agglomeration and regional development can make contributions to the broad area of economic geography and regional science, in terms of empirical results, theoretical arguments, and methodology. In addition, I also would like to conduct research on the interconnection between GIS and web technology. My current research agenda is in these areas and I am confident that my dedication and efforts will generate interesting, successful, research.