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Quantifying China’s regional economic complexity

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  • Gao, Jian
  • Zhou, Tao

Abstract

China has experienced an outstanding economic expansion during the past decades, however, literature on non-monetary metrics that reveal the status of China’s regional economic development are still lacking. In this paper, we fill this gap by quantifying the economic complexity of China’s provinces through analyzing 25 years’ firm data. First, we estimate the regional economic complexity index (ECI), and show that the overall time evolution of provinces’ ECI is relatively stable and slow. Then, after linking ECI to the economic development and the income inequality, we find that the explanatory power of ECI is positive for the former but negative for the latter. Next, we compare different measures of economic diversity and explore their relationships with monetary macroeconomic indicators. Results show that the ECI index and the non-linear iteration based Fitness index are comparative, and they both have stronger explanatory power than other benchmark measures. Further multivariate regressions suggest the robustness of our results after controlling other socioeconomic factors. Our work moves forward a step towards better understanding China’s regional economic development and non-monetary macroeconomic indicators.

Suggested Citation

  • Gao, Jian & Zhou, Tao, 2018. "Quantifying China’s regional economic complexity," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 492(C), pages 1591-1603.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:phsmap:v:492:y:2018:i:c:p:1591-1603
    DOI: 10.1016/j.physa.2017.11.084
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    Cited by:

    1. Balland, Pierre-Alexandre & Broekel, Tom & Diodato, Dario & Giuliani, Elisa & Hausmann, Ricardo & O'Clery, Neave & Rigby, David, 2022. "The new paradigm of economic complexity," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(3).
    2. Pisicoli, Beniamino, 2023. "Financial development, diversity, and economic stability: Micro and systemic evidence," International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 175(C), pages 187-200.
    3. Ghosh, Abhik & Mallick, Olivia & Chattopadhay, Souvik & Basu, Banasri, 2022. "Strata-based quantification of distributional uncertainty in socio-economic indicators: A comparative study of Indian states," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    4. Shubin, I., 2021. "Correlation between economic complexity and economic development in different types of Russian regions," Journal of the New Economic Association, New Economic Association, vol. 51(3), pages 144-161.
    5. Balland, Pierre-Alexandre & Broekel, Tom & Diodato, Dario & Giuliani, Elisa & Hausmann, Ricardo & O'Clery, Neave & Rigby, David, 2022. "Reprint of The new paradigm of economic complexity," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(8).
    6. Roberto Antonietti & Chiara Burlina, 2019. "From variety to economic complexity: empirical evidence from Italian regions," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 1930, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised Oct 2019.
    7. Antonietti, Roberto & Franco, Chiara, 2021. "From FDI to economic complexity: a panel Granger causality analysis," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 225-239.
    8. Maurya, Garima & Sahu, Sohini, 2022. "Cross-country variations in economic complexity: The role of individualism," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 115(C).
    9. Santiago Perez Balsalobre & Carlos Llano Verduras & Jorge Diaz-Lanchas, 2019. "Measuring subnational economic complexity: An application with Spanish data," JRC Working Papers on Territorial Modelling and Analysis 2019-05, Joint Research Centre.
    10. Canh Phuc Nguyen & Thanh Dinh Su, 2021. "Financing the economy: The multidimensional influences of financial development on economic complexity," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 33(4), pages 644-684, May.
    11. Ibrahim, Ridwan Lanre & Al-mulali, Usama & Ozturk, Ilhan & Bello, Ajide Kazeem & Raimi, Lukman, 2022. "On the criticality of renewable energy to sustainable development: Do green financial development, technological innovation, and economic complexity matter for China?," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 199(C), pages 262-277.
    12. Liang, Zhentao & Ba, Zhichao & Mao, Jin & Li, Gang, 2023. "Research complexity increases with scientists’ academic age: Evidence from library and information science," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 17(1).
    13. Ajide, Kazeem Bello, 2022. "Is natural resource curse thesis an empirical regularity for economic complexity in Africa?," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    14. Shahzad, Umer & Madaleno, Mara & Dagar, Vishal & Ghosh, Sudeshna & Doğan, Buhari, 2022. "Exploring the role of export product quality and economic complexity for economic progress of developed economies: Does institutional quality matter?," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 40-51.
    15. Chen, Ling-Jiao & Gao, Jian, 2018. "A trust-based recommendation method using network diffusion processes," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 506(C), pages 679-691.
    16. Yang, Xiao & Gao, Jian & Liu, Jin-Hu & Zhou, Tao, 2018. "Height conditions salary expectations: Evidence from large-scale data in China," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 501(C), pages 86-97.

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