Spatial Effect of water transportation to Economic Development in the Yangtze River Economic Zone

The data of the Yangtze River Economic Zone in the period of 2010—2018 are processed by means of software GeoDa and Stata to investigate the effect of water transportation to economic development in the area. The water transport development index is defined through weighing with entropy method and taken as the explanatory variable for calculating the spatial effect. The research indicates that there is positive spatial correlation between economic development and water transport. For a district within the economic zone, 1% increase of water transport index is corresponding to 0.577% growth of the per-capita gross domestic product. Spatial spillover effect is obvious with noticeable mutual influence among sister districts, more often indirectly than directly. For 1% increase of water transport index in sister district, 0.405% GDP growth can be seen in the district.