以中国省域空间作为地理观测单元，以发明专利申请受理数作为创新产出的度量指标，采用相对发展率对我国省际创新的相对发展差异进行测度，并运用Theil 指数及其分解详细刻画我国东中西三大区域创新差异的时空演变特征。研究结果表明：①1988-2013年期间，我国省际创新产出相对发展率的地区差异较大，并呈现自东向西梯度递减的空间分布特征；②区域内创新差异在考察期内缓慢增大，并呈现两阶段“U”型变动特征，东中西三大区域不存在“俱乐部收敛”特征；③区域间创新差异先减小后增大再减小，由此推动区域创新总体差异以1996年和2007年为拐点，呈现先减小后增大再减小的 “S”型变化特征；④从贡献率的变动趋势看，区域内部省际差距对全国整体差距的贡献率在考察期内先减小后增大，而三大区域间创新差异对全国整体差异的贡献率却呈现先增大后减小的发展趋势。

With China’s provincial areas as a geographical observational unit, and with application of invention patents as a measure index of innovation output, relative development rate is adopted to measure the relative developmental difference between China’s provincial innovations, and the Theil index as well as its decomposition is employed to depict in details the time-space evolution characteristics of innovation difference across eastern, central, and western areas of China. The finding of the study suggests: ① During the 1988-2013 period, the regional difference in relative development rate of China’s provincial innovation was relatively huge, rendering a spatial distribution characteristic of gradient descending from east to west; ② The difference between intra-regional innovations was slowly dilated within the period of inspection, rendering a U-shape variation characteristic over two stages, and they were not characterized by “club convergence”; ③ The difference of innovation between regions diminished before enlarged and then diminished again, thus pushing the overall difference of innovation to have inflected at the years 1996 and 2007 and render a characteristic of decrease-increase-decrease S-shape variation; ④ From the perspective of changing tendency of contribution rate, the rate at which the intra-regional provincial difference contributes to the overall national difference decreases before increases within the period of inspection, while the rate at which the innovation difference across the three areas contributes to the overall national difference renders a development tendency of increment followed by decrement.

国家社会科学基金青年项目（13CJL063）：基于知识溢出的区域创新空间结构演进与优化对策研究