Abstract: Based on the strategic goal of high-quality development in the report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, and considering the strategic position of the Yellow River Basin as an important ecological security barrier in northern China, this paper explored the spatial differences in high-quality economic development in the Yellow River Basin. This study constructed an indicator system for high-quality economic development in the Yellow River Basin, which covered economic growth capacity, innovation capacity, openness and sharing capacity, green development capacity, and coordinated development capacity,and conducted comprehensive evaluation and spatial autocorrelation analysis of each province through entropy method and Moran index method. The results showed that from 2011 to 2020, Shandong Province’s level of high-quality economic development continued to lead and remained stable, but there were differences in the high-quality economic development among provinces; through spatial analysis, it could be seen that the Yellow River Basin presented high-high agglomeration areas （Henan Province）, low-low agglomeration areas （Shaanxi Province, Qinghai Province, Gansu Province, and Ningxia）, low-high agglomeration areas （Inner Mongolia and Shanxi Province）, and high low agglomeration areas （Sichuan Province and Shandong Province）, indicating significant regional differences in the high-quality economic development of the Yellow River Basin.Suggestions were proposed from four aspects： increasing policy support, promoting industrial restructuring and upgrading, strengthening regional linkage and cooperation, and promoting green development, in order to narrow the regional development gap and achieve the goal of high-quality economic development in the Yellow River Basin.

Key words: high-quality economic development, spatial differences, influencing factors, regulatory measures, Yellow River Basin