IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hhs/gunwpe/0127.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

An Empirical Analysis of Provincial Productivity in China (1979-2001)

Author

Listed:
  • Zheng, Jinghai

    (Department of Economics, School of Economics and Commercial Law, Göteborg University)

  • Hu, Angang

    (Center for China Studies, School of Public Policy and Management,)

Abstract

This study analyzes provincial productivity growth in China for the period of 1979-2001. The Malmquist Index approach allows us to decompose productivity growth into two components, technical progress and efficiency change. Considerable productivity growth was found for most of the data period, but it was accomplished mainly through technical progress rather than efficiency improvement. Although China’s capital stock has been accumulated at the speed of a historical record in recent years, our findings show that TFP growth slowed significantly during 1995-2001. The study thus raises serious questions on whether China’s recent growth pattern is consistent with its comparative advantages, and whether its reliance on capital accumulation can be sustained in the long run.

Suggested Citation

  • Zheng, Jinghai & Hu, Angang, 2004. "An Empirical Analysis of Provincial Productivity in China (1979-2001)," Working Papers in Economics 127, University of Gothenburg, Department of Economics, revised 22 Mar 2004.
    • Handle: RePEc:hhs:gunwpe:0127
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/2077/2790
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Forsund, Finn R & Hjalmarsson, Lennart, 1979. "Generalised Farrell Measures of Efficiency: An Application to Milk Processing in Swedish Dairy Plants," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 89(354), pages 294-315, June.
    2. repec:bla:pacecr:v:8:y:2003:i:1:p:15-30 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Alwyn Young, 2000. "Gold into Base Metals: Productivity Growth in the People's Republic of China during the Reform Period," NBER Working Papers 7856, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Mao, Weining & Koo, Won W., 1997. "Productivity growth, technological progress, and efficiency change in chinese agriculture after rural economic reforms: A DEA approach," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 8(2), pages 157-174.
    5. Sachs, Jeffery & Woo, Wing, 1997. "Understanding China'S Economic Performance," Harvard Institute for International Development (HIID) Papers 294390, Harvard University, Kennedy School of Government.
    6. Wu, Yanrui, 2000. "Is China's economic growth sustainable? A productivity analysis," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 11(3), pages 278-296.
    7. Jeffrey D. Sachs & Wing Thye Woo, "undated". "Understanding China'S Economic Performance," Department of Economics 97-04, California Davis - Department of Economics.
    8. Alwyn Young, 2003. "Gold into Base Metals: Productivity Growth in the People's Republic of China during the Reform Period," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 111(6), pages 1220-1261, December.
    9. Alwyn Young, 2000. "The Razor's Edge: Distortions and Incremental Reform in the People's Republic of China," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 115(4), pages 1091-1135.
    10. Zheng, Jinghai & Liu, Xiaoxuan & Bigsten, Arne, 2003. "Efficiency, technical progress, and best practice in Chinese state enterprises (1980-1994)," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(1), pages 134-152, March.
    11. Alwyn Young, 2000. "The Razor's Edge: Distortions and Incremental Reform in the People's Republic of China," NBER Working Papers 7828, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Jun Zhang, 2008. "China's Economic Growth: Trajectories and Evolving Institutions," WIDER Working Paper Series RP2008-33, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    2. Ping HUA, 2005. "Real exchange rate and employment in the manufacturing sector in China," Working Papers 200528, CERDI.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Sylviane GUILLAUMONT JEANNENEY & PING HUA & ZHICHENG LIANG, 2006. "Financial Development, Economic Efficiency, And Productivity Growth: Evidence From China," The Developing Economies, Institute of Developing Economies, vol. 44(1), pages 27-52, March.
    2. Zhou, Xianbo & Li, Kui-Wai & Li, Qin, 2011. "An analysis on technical efficiency in post-reform China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 22(3), pages 357-372, September.
    3. Jinghai Zheng & Angang Hu, 2006. "An Empirical Analysis of Provincial Productivity in China (1979-2001)," Journal of Chinese Economic and Business Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 4(3), pages 221-239.
    4. Sean M. Dougherty & Robert H. McGuckin, 2001. "The Effect of Ownership Structure and Jurisdictional Governance on Productivity in Chinese Enterprises," Economics Program Working Papers 02-01, The Conference Board, Economics Program, revised Jan 2002.
    5. Li, Kui-Wai & Liu, Tung, 2011. "Economic and productivity growth decomposition: An application to post-reform China," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 28(1), pages 366-373.
    6. Lee Branstetter & Nicholas Lardy, 2006. "China's Embrace of Globalization," NBER Working Papers 12373, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Li, Kui-Wai, 2009. "China's total factor productivity estimates by region, investment sources and ownership," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 33(3), pages 213-230, September.
    8. Kui-Wai Li & Tung Liu & Lihong Yun, 2007. "Technology Progress, Efficiency, and Scale of Economy in Post-reform China," Working Papers 200701, Ball State University, Department of Economics, revised Apr 2007.
    9. Liu, Tung & Li, Kui-Wai, 2006. "Disparity in factor contributions between coastal and inner provinces in post-reform China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 17(4), pages 449-470.
    10. Claro, Sebastian, 2006. "Supporting inefficient firms with capital subsidies: China and Germany in the 1990s," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(2), pages 377-401, June.
    11. Cao, Kang Hua & Birchenall, Javier A., 2013. "Agricultural productivity, structural change, and economic growth in post-reform China," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 165-180.
    12. Shawn Xiaoguang Chen & Yudan Cheng & Liutang Gong & Wenjia Tian, 2023. "A Big Push of Panda from the Ground: Land Subsidy and Structural Transformation in China," Economics Discussion / Working Papers 23-09, The University of Western Australia, Department of Economics.
    13. Murat Üngör, 2009. "De-industrialization of the Riches and the Rise of China," DEGIT Conference Papers c014_040, DEGIT, Dynamics, Economic Growth, and International Trade.
    14. Wang, Bin & Yu, Minxiu & Zhu, Yucheng & Bao, Pinjuan, 2021. "Unveiling the driving factors of carbon emissions from industrial resource allocation in China: A spatial econometric perspective," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    15. Jones, Derek C. & Li, Cheng & Owen, Ann L., 2003. "Growth and regional inequality in China during the reform era," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 14(2), pages 186-200.
    16. Jorg Scheibe, 2003. "The Chinese Output Gap During the Reform Period 1978-2002," Economics Series Working Papers 179, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    17. Simon, György, 2001. "Reform és növekedés Kínában [Reform and growth in China]," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(7), pages 673-692.
    18. Zheng, Jinghai & Bigsten, Arne & Hu, Angang, 2009. "Can China's Growth be Sustained? A Productivity Perspective," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 37(4), pages 874-888, April.
    19. Liu, Tung & Li, Kui-Wai, 2012. "Analyzing China's productivity growth: Evidence from manufacturing industries," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 36(4), pages 531-551.
    20. Dobson, Wendy & Safarian, A.E., 2008. "The transition from imitation to innovation: An enquiry into China's evolving institutions and firm capabilities," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(4), pages 301-311, August.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Productivity; capital deepening; China;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D24 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Production; Cost; Capital; Capital, Total Factor, and Multifactor Productivity; Capacity
    • O47 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - Empirical Studies of Economic Growth; Aggregate Productivity; Cross-Country Output Convergence
    • O53 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Asia including Middle East

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:hhs:gunwpe:0127. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: Jessica Oscarsson (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/naiguse.html .

    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.