Regional Imbalance/Regional Disparities

• Balanced growth means growth equilibrium in different sectors of the economy. It means all sectors of economy will expand in same proportion so that consumption, investment, & income will in same rate. It means the growth rate of consumption, investment & income should be equal.
• Balance growth is a dynamic process which include sustainable growth where the supply & demand are in equilibrium and growth in every kind of capital stock.
• According to R. F. Harrod, balance growth is a condition where wweight of income, output & natural resources are equal. It is express as:   G_y = G_w = G_n or G_y = G_o = G_r . If the 3 variables are balanced, the country or nation has balance growth pattern.
• Regional Disparity is a spatial analysis of the growth pattern or the economic development. Certain areal units have higher growth propensity because of geographical advantages & inertia, while certain regions lacks such advantages. Thus ,they remain economically depressed & growth impulse are emancipated.
• Regional Imbalance is the effect of variations in growth impulses over the space. It is an important geographical search, as to why certain regions have higher growth rate while others have not? Regional imbalance the differential economic force existing in a region. Certain regions have polarisation of economic factors while some regions have economic deprivation.

Factors Behind Regional Imbalance

1. Physical Factors
   • Natural resource endowment
   • climate
   • Soil & the soil fertility
   • Hydrology
   • Accessibility
   • Location
   • Altitude
2. The non-physical
   • Historical Factors
   • social factors
   • political factors
   • Dynamic factors
   • Technological factors
   • demographic factors
   • Economic factors

Theories of Regional Imbalance

1. Core-periphery model(Boundaries & Frontiers)
   • According to John R. Friedman, the core is always develops at the cost of periphery region due to centripetal force & the tendency of economic factors to centralise.
   • Core has the highest magnitude & intensity of phenomena while peripheral parts have more centrifugal tendency. Over landscape, initially, there are nucleus of growth which develop into the core and deprives the surrounding. Thus, regional disparity are bound to come.
   • It is a naturalistic theory of economic growth & regional disparity.
2. Cumulative-Causation theory(by Gunnar Myrdal)
   • According to theory, regional disparity or imbalance is merely a stage in the process of equilibrium growth. 
   • In this theory, it was argued that contrary to the classical theory, economic market forces increases regional difeerences rather than decreasing them.
   • Stage I(Cumulative-Causation Stage)
   • • Economic development takes place in a region initially because of natural advantages that it offers. Then, once such region moves ahead of others, a process of cumulative causation takes place as acquired advantages are developed to reinforce the status of the region.
     • Myrdal identified two associated processes which caused unequal growth:
     • 1. Cumulative Causation
       2. Backwash effect
   • Stage II(The Backwash Effect)
   • • A process of spatial interaction takes place as labour, capital & commodities move into growing region.
     • Such growth produces a backwash effect in that other regions and they lose skilled labour and capital to grow region and their markets are flooded with goods, preventing local development.
   • Stage III(The Spread-Out Effect)
   • • The benefits percolate or trickle down, especially the capital investment, diffusion of investment, the dissimulation of ideas & the reverse spatial interaction.
     • Thus, the regional disparity are temporary and ultimately leads to the balanced regional growth.

Regional Disparities across the world

1. North-South Divide
   • North: Former colonial powers, imperialist countries, technologically equipped, commercial economies, exporter of the final products, they control 3/4th of the world trade.
   • South: formal colonies, exporter of the raw materials, technologically deficient.

Region

• It is a distinctive unit or area based on the interaction of small spatial & ecological system over the space. It has particular characteristics such as physical condition or economic organisations which affects the spatial relationship that man has with the space.
• Region refers to a unit of space where homogeneity increases inwards & heterogeneity across the boundary.  A region is a segment of a landscape presenting a coherent picture of a set of attributes. eg. Savana region has unique vegetation which presents that coherent picture. Thus region have uniqueness & distinctiveness from the surroundings.
• A region can be defined as a homogeneous area where a set of criteria applies.
• Regionalisation is the process of delineating surface of earth but each time guided by a purpose. Thus regions have purpose or goal.
• Regionalisation deals with the differentiation of political measure in space. If such political regionalisation coincides with physical homogeneity, it becomes a unit of regional planning.
• Regions have transitional boundaries because the phenomena continues to exist, but may not be with the same magnitude.
• Regions are mental construct & they are anthropogenic because nature doesn't have classification, and regionalisation is an achedmic endeavour to reduce the complexity of the phenomena.
• Region is distinct from area. Area is merely a space unit while region is area+phenomena. Phenomena is an event of a thing by itself.
• Region and space are also distinct because space is framework where phenomena exist.

Classification of Region

(i)Formal Based on uniformity given by a particular region

(ii)Functional It has defined core that retain a specific characteristic that diminishes outwards.

(iii)Programming Which is designed to serve a particular purpose.

Formal Region

• They are non-dynamic & subjective regions where the criteria taken are abstract. eg. cultural region.
• Such regions have transitional boundary and they are perception based. eg. Malyalam cultural region, Bengali cultural region(criteria is language, lifestyle, etc.)
• Linguistic regions are formal regions. Geographical region or paleo-geographical region is also formal region.

Functional Region

• They are objective regions; criteria is quantitative. They have flow pattern. They are dynamic. Boundaries are not fixed but they have linear boundary.
• Industrial regions are functional region. Metropolitian region, city region, administrative region are also functional region.

The methods for Delimitation of Boundary

1.  Mono-variable Method/Single Index Method
   • It is used for demarcation of formal region.
   • It is uses a single creatia for differentiation of two units of the landscape. eg. for demarcation of backward region, per capita income can be taken as criteria.
   • If Y_a – Y_b = 0, regionalisation or demarcation of region can't take place. Here, a & b are subunits and Y is per capita income.
   • But if Y_a – Y_b = k, is a fixed criteria adopted by policy maker. But it can only provide with the transitional boundary.
2. The Flow Analysis
   • It is used for demarcation of the functional region. eg. Industrial region.
   • The inflow of raw material, labour, capital and outflow of products can be demarcated on the basis of transportation lines & all the port lines are joined by vertical lines. Thus, it gives the star diagram.

Problems in Demarcation

1. Definition of regional boundaries
   • Physical features does not change abruptly as the lines on map.
2. Scale
   • Depending upon the criteria used,  there are thousands of regions that can be defined, ranging from the environmental region to region served by a single shop.

Demarcation of city regions or Denoted regions

1. Qualitative Methods
   1. R. L. Singh's Method
   2. UN method
   3. Skyline Method
2. Quantitative Method
   1. Gravity Model
   2. Break point Model
   3. Law of retail gravitation