Research on the evolution and influencing factors of regional economic spatial pattern in Germany
Since the reunification of Germany and East Germany,the increasingly prominent regional economic development imbalance has become a bottleneck limiting Germany's econom-ic development and social equity,and scholars of economic geography have been analyzing the regional economic development problems in Germany to summarize the experiences and lessons of coordinated regional development.This paper focuses on the evolution of the regional eco-nomic pattern in Germany from 2000 to 2020.Based on the data of GDP per capita,the spatial distribution and regional pattern are summarised at the federal-länder-county(city)level,and the spatial error model(SEM)is used to further analyse the drivers of the evolution of the regional economic pattern in Germany.The spatial error model(SEM)was used to further analyse the drivers of the evolution of regional development patterns in Germany.The results of the study show that:(1)Germany's regional economic pattern shows a spatial distribution pattern of"high in the west and low in the east,high in the south and low in the north",and the high GDP per cap-ita areas are mostly located in the metropolitan cores.(2)The gap between the former East Ger-many and the former West Germany is gradually narrowing,andregional economic differences in the north-south direction of Germany still exist.(3)There are significant scale differences and regional heterogeneity in the driving factors of regional economic development in Germany.The regional economic pattern and its evolution in Germany can provide references for the fu-ture of China's regional development.China should attach importance to the construction of sci-entific and technological innovation capabilities in the Midwest,and manufacturing industry mat-ters a lot to cultivate competitive advantages of the region.The paper can provide useful per-spectives for a better understanding of development and experience of Germany.