IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/asi/ajosrd/v4y2014i2p113-127id1128.html

A Study on Regional Specialization of China’s Agricultural Production: Recent Trends and Drivers

Author

Listed:
  • Ma, Meilin

    (Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, University of California, Davis, USA)

  • Steinbach, Sandro

    (Agricultural Economics Group, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich, Switzerland)

  • Wu, Junqian

    (School of Management, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, PR China)

Abstract

The paper examines trends and drivers for regional specialization of China’s agricultural produc-tion for 2003-2011. We apply the Regional Specialization Index to a data set of commodities that covers 70 percent of China’s crop and livestock production. Actual prices at the provincial level are used and a seven-region framework is established that accurately reflects China’s agro-ecological characteristics. Our findings show that inequality of specialization among the Chinese regions has narrowed, with the year 2007 as a turning point. We argue that the enhanced regional specialization is due to less government intervention and more openness to international markets. Growing economic freedom, accompanied by intensified internal and external competition, has driven the regions to adjust agricultural production structures closely according to comparative advantages. Recent trends of specialization are identified and explained. Moreover, quantitative evidence to relevant agricultural policies is provided.

Suggested Citation

  • Ma, Meilin & Steinbach, Sandro & Wu, Junqian, 2014. "A Study on Regional Specialization of China’s Agricultural Production: Recent Trends and Drivers," Asian Journal of Agriculture and Rural Development, Asian Economic and Social Society, vol. 4(2), pages 113-127.
    • Handle: RePEc:asi:ajosrd:v:4:y:2014:i:2:p:113-127:id:1128
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://archive.aessweb.com/index.php/5005/article/view/1128
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://archive.aessweb.com/index.php/5005/article/view/1128/1636
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:asi:ajosrd:v:4:y:2014:i:2:p:113-127:id:1128. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Robert Allen (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://archive.aessweb.com/index.php/5005/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.