Development potential of Chinese construction industry in the new century based on regional difference and spatial convergence analysis

The development of Chinese construction industry is strongly influenced by geographic locations. And it shows an obvious ladder-like distribution showing a decreasing trend from the east to the middle and the west. The persistent occurrence and excessive expansion of such differences not only affects the overall efficiency of the construction industry's development, but also reflects an inefficient allocation of resources. Based on this, we attempt to combine multiple attribute model with time series and convergence models, make the regional difference and spatial convergence analysis of the development potential of Chinese construction industry and describe the differences of the development potential for the construction industry existing in the three examined regions of China. So decision makers can be provided with an accurate and reliable basis. The research indicates that in the new century, all the regions in China show an enormous potential for the growth of a highly developed construction industry. The west has the greatest development potential, with the middle following behind closely; Compared with this, the east is the weakest. It also finds that there is an absolute convergence in the development potential of the Chinese construction industry. Furthermore, it formulates the club convergence for the east, the middle and the west. The effective combination of multiple attribute model with time series, absolute convergence and club convergence models can avoid the shortcoming of the subjective weighting method and realize the innovation of the research methods for the development potential of construction industry.