Dynamic evolution and spatial-temporal disparities decomposition of high-quality economic development in China

High-quality economic development (HQED) in China is an important embodiment for adapting new normal of economy and implementing new concept of sustainable development. Accurately portraying the evolution trajectory of China's HQED and tracing sources of its spatial-temporal disparities are of great significance for promoting balanced and healthy economic development. Since the evolution of HQED is dynamic and motivated by the need for continuously monitoring the time-varying process of HQED, we develop a functional high-quality economic development index (HQEDI(t)) in the context of functional data analysis. We use the functional ANOVA to examine the significance of disparities between regions, in terms of static absolute level and dynamic development potentials, based on the continuous measurement of provincial HQED. The extended functional Dagum Gini coefficient is also used to decompose the overall and structural inequality of China's HQED. The results show the following. (1) The overall level of China's HQED has been steadily increasing, and innovation efficiency is the leading factor for improvement of China's HQED. (2) Uneven development between regions exists only at the absolute level and grow velocity of HQED, but it is not significant in acceleration. (3) The overall regional disparities of China's HQED show a downward trend, and inter-regional disparities dominate the inequality of HQED. We make a contribution to the idea of a dynamic framework for evaluating HQED and provide guidance for policy-making authorities to formulate target development policies.