This paper evaluates the relationship between initial government policies and the emergence of convergence clubs in post-reform China. We test the structural stability of a global convergence equation using China's provincial data over the period 1985-2000. We find that the provinces cluster around two basins of attraction defined by initial opening-up. Domestic market reform exerts a positive and significant influence on provincial economic growth but has no threshold effect. The two convergence clubs exhibit strikingly different growth behaviors, suggesting that the roles of some growth-promoting factors, such as human capital and infrastructure, depend on whether an openness threshold is passed. Copyright 2008 The Author. Journal compilation 2008 East Asian Economic Association and Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
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Article provided by East Asian Economic Association in its journal Asian Economic Journal.