IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/oup/restud/v93y2026i1p286-326..html

Barriers to Entry and Regional Economic Growth in China

Author

Listed:
  • Loren Brandt
  • Gueorgui Kambourov
  • Kjetil Storesletten

Abstract

Labour productivity in manufacturing differs starkly across regions in China. We document that productivity, wages, and start-up rates of non-state firms have nevertheless experienced rapid unconditional regional convergence after 1995. To analyse these patterns, we construct a Hopenhayn model that incorporates location-specific capital wedges, output wedges, and entry barriers. Using Chinese Industry Census data, we estimate these wedges and examine their role in explaining differences in performance and growth across prefectures. Entry barriers explain most of the differences. We investigate the empirical covariates of these entry barriers and find that changes in barriers are causally related to changes in the size of the state sector: a smaller state sector leads to lower entry barriers.

Suggested Citation

  • Loren Brandt & Gueorgui Kambourov & Kjetil Storesletten, 2026. "Barriers to Entry and Regional Economic Growth in China," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 93(1), pages 286-326.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:restud:v:93:y:2026:i:1:p:286-326.
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/restud/rdaf029
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or

    for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Wang, Feicheng & Liang, Zhe & Lehmann, Hartmut, 2021. "Import competition and informal employment: Empirical evidence from China," University of Göttingen Working Papers in Economics 426, University of Goettingen, Department of Economics.
    3. Ma, Xiao, 2020. "College Expansion, Trade and Innovation: Evidence from China," MPRA Paper 109469, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Tang, Rongsheng & Tang, Yang, 2022. "Market formation in China from 1978," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(C).
    5. De Haas, Ralph & Guriev, Sergei & Stepanov, Alexander, 2025. "State ownership and corporate leverage around the world," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    6. Brandt, Loren & Lim, Kevin, 2024. "Opening up in the 21st century: A quantitative accounting of Chinese export growth," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 150(C).
    7. Lixing Li & Qihong Liu & Changyu Ren, 2022. "Firms Quasi‐dynamics in Chinese Manufacturing Industry," China & World Economy, Institute of World Economics and Politics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, vol. 30(5), pages 102-127, September.
    8. Bo, Shiyu & Liu, Cong & Zhou, Yan, 2023. "Military investment and the rise of industrial clusters: Evidence from China’s self-strengthening movement," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    9. Helu Jiang & Yu Zheng & Lijun Zhu, 2024. "Entry Barriers And Growth: The Role Of Endogenous Market Structure," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 65(3), pages 1221-1248, August.
    10. Berkowitz, Daniel & Nishioka, Shuichiro, 2024. "The growth of firms, markets and rents: Evidence from China," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(2), pages 383-399.
    11. Chuantao Cui & Leona Shao-Zhi Li, 2024. "More but not better: Career incentives of local leaders and entrepreneurial entry in China," Working Papers 202417, University of Macau, Faculty of Business Administration.
    12. Li, Zhaohua & Pang, Suqin & Zhu, Zhiyun, 2024. "The impact of pilot free trade zones on entrepreneurship: Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment in China," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    13. Tasso Adam & Loren Brandt & Chaoran Chen & Diego Restuccia & Xiaoyun Wei, 2024. "Land Security and Mobility Frictions," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 139(3), pages 1941-1987.
    14. Yang, Xiaoliang & Barros, Lucy & Matthews, Kent & Meenagh, David, 2024. "The dynamics of redistribution, inequality and growth across China’s regions," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 46(3), pages 613-637.
    15. Yuting Li & Karsten Mau & Mingzhi Xu, 2023. "Rising Wages and Intra-Country Industry Relocation: Evidence from China," Open Economies Review, Springer, vol. 34(3), pages 579-615, July.
    16. Cui, Chuantao & Li, Leona Shao-Zhi, 2023. "Trade policy uncertainty and new firm entry: Evidence from China," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 163(C).
    17. Zhao, Zhong & Zheng, Liang, 2023. "The Births of New Private-Owned Enterprises in an Environment of State-Owned Enterprises," IZA Discussion Papers 16259, IZA Network @ LISER.
    18. Ouyang, Difei, 2024. "State-owned enterprise presence: Local spillovers," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    19. Loren Brandt & Kevin Lim, 2020. "Accounting for Chinese Exports," Working Papers tecipa-680, University of Toronto, Department of Economics.
    20. Shi, Xiangyu & Xi, Tianyang & Zhang, Xiaobo & Zhang, Yifan, 2021. "“Moving Umbrella”: Bureaucratic transfers and the comovement of interregional investments in China," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 153(C).
    21. Liang Zheng, 2021. "The impact of state-owned enterprises on the employment growth of manufacturing in Chinese cities: Evidence from economic census microdata," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 58(8), pages 1655-1673, June.
    22. Brandt,Loren & Litwack,John & Mileva,Elitza Alexandrova & Wang,Luhang & Zhang,Yifan-000568579 & Zhao,Luan, 2020. "China's Productivity Slowdown and Future Growth Potential," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9298, The World Bank.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • O11 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Macroeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
    • O14 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Industrialization; Manufacturing and Service Industries; Choice of Technology
    • O16 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Financial Markets; Saving and Capital Investment; Corporate Finance and Governance
    • O40 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - General
    • O53 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Asia including Middle East
    • P25 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Socialist and Transition Economies - - - Urban, Rural, and Regional Economics
    • R13 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - General Equilibrium and Welfare Economic Analysis of Regional Economies
    • D22 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Firm Behavior: Empirical Analysis
    • D24 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Production; Cost; Capital; Capital, Total Factor, and Multifactor Productivity; Capacity
    • E24 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution; Aggregate Human Capital; Aggregate Labor Productivity

    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:oup:restud:v:93:y:2026:i:1:p:286-326.. 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: Oxford University Press (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://academic.oup.com/restud .

    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.