IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ioe/doctra/305.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

How Uncompetitive is the State-Owned Industrial Sector in China

Author

Listed:
  • Sebastián Claro

    (Instituto de Economía. Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile.)

Abstract

The profitability gap between state-owned enterprises and the non-state industrial sector in China is significant. Using a highly-disaggregated database of China's industry in 2003, we estimate an average return to capital in state-owned enterprises about 9% that of foreign-invested firms, and about 59% of the return to capital in all non-state-owned industrial enterprises. Capital return differences are mainly driven by productivity differences, but the negative impact on SOEs' rental rates of a relatively integrated labor market is not negligible. The rental rate gap is much higher in sectors that represent a small share in SOEs' output and assets, meaning that the capital subsidies granted by the government have not biased SOEs' production structure toward industries with greatest profitability gap. The inefficiency cost of distortions in relative factor prices is estimated between 5% and 8% of total industrial output.

Suggested Citation

  • Sebastián Claro, 2005. "How Uncompetitive is the State-Owned Industrial Sector in China," Documentos de Trabajo 305, Instituto de Economia. Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile..
  • Handle: RePEc:ioe:doctra:305
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.economia.uc.cl/docs/doctra/dt-305.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Robert C. Feenstra & Gordon H. Hanson, 2004. "Intermediaries in Entrepôt Trade: Hong Kong Re‐Exports of Chinese Goods," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 13(1), pages 3-35, March.
    2. Jefferson, Gary & Hu, Albert G. Z. & Guan, Xiaojing & Yu, Xiaoyun, 2003. "Ownership, performance, and innovation in China's large- and medium-size industrial enterprise sector," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 14(1), pages 89-113.
    3. Hans‐Werner Sinn, 2002. "Germany’s Economic Unification: An Assessment after Ten Years," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 10(1), pages 113-128, February.
    4. Ling Li, 1998. "Book Review: The China Miracle: Development Strategy and Economic Reform by Justin Yifu Lin, Fang Cai, and Zhou Li," Cato Journal, Cato Journal, Cato Institute, vol. 18(1), pages 147-150, Spring/Su.
    5. Zhao, Yaohui, 2001. "Foreign direct investment and relative wages: The case of China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 12(1), pages 40-57.
    6. 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.
    7. Yingyi Qian, 1996. "Enterprise reform in China: agency problems and political control," The Economics of Transition, The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, vol. 4(2), pages 427-447, October.
    8. Lin, Justin Yifu & Cai, Fang & Li, Zhou, 1998. "Competition, Policy Burdens, and State-Owned Enterprise Reform," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 88(2), pages 422-427, May.
    9. Jefferson, Gary H. & Rawski, Thomas G. & Li, Wang & Yuxin, Zheng, 2000. "Ownership, Productivity Change, and Financial Performance in Chinese Industry," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(4), pages 786-813, December.
    10. Sebastián Claro, 2006. "Why does China protect its labour‐intensive industries more?," The Economics of Transition, The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, vol. 14(2), pages 289-319, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. 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.
    2. Deqiang Liu & Yanyun Zhao, 2006. "Ownership, Foreign Investment and Productivity--A Case Study of the Automotive Industry in China," Microeconomics Working Papers 21892, East Asian Bureau of Economic Research.
    3. Xunpeng Shi, 2010. "Restructuring in China's State‐owned Enterprises: Evidence from the Coal Industry," China & World Economy, Institute of World Economics and Politics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, vol. 18(3), pages 90-105, May.
    4. Holz, Carsten A., 2011. "The unbalanced growth hypothesis and the role of the state: The case of China's state-owned enterprises," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 96(2), pages 220-238, November.
    5. Holz, Carsten A., 2002. "Long live China's state-owned enterprises: deflating the myth of poor financial performance," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 13(4), pages 493-529.
    6. Kang, Young-Sam & Kim, Byung-Yeon, 2012. "Ownership structure and firm performance: Evidence from the Chinese corporate reform," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 23(2), pages 471-481.
    7. Liu, Jing & Cao, Shutao, 2011. "Productivity growth and ownership change in China: 1998-2007," MPRA Paper 34601, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 04 Sep 2011.
    8. Jun Du & Sourafel Girma, 2009. "Finance and Firm Start-up Size: Quantile Regression Evidence from China," Discussion Papers 09/12, University of Nottingham, GEP.
    9. Zhe Zhang & Xin Wang & Ming Jia, 2021. "Echoes of CEO Entrepreneurial Orientation: How and When CEO Entrepreneurial Orientation Influences Dual CSR Activities," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 169(4), pages 609-629, April.
    10. Anwar, Sajid & Sun, Sizhong, 2012. "Trade liberalisation, market competition and wage inequality in China's manufacturing sector," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 29(4), pages 1268-1277.
    11. Ela Glowicka, 2006. "Effectiveness of Bailouts in the EU," CIG Working Papers SP II 2006-05, Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin (WZB), Research Unit: Competition and Innovation (CIG).
    12. Sen Lin & Fengqin Chen & Lihong Wang, 2020. "Identity of multiple large shareholders and corporate governance: are state-owned entities efficient MLS?," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 55(4), pages 1305-1340, November.
    13. Chamon, Marcos & Liu, Kai & Prasad, Eswar, 2013. "Income uncertainty and household savings in China," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 164-177.
    14. Hao, Li & Houser, Daniel & Mao, Lei & Villeval, Marie Claire, 2016. "Migrations, risks, and uncertainty: A field experiment in China," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 131(PA), pages 126-140.
    15. Giovanni Dosi & Jiasu Lei & Xiaodan Yu, 2013. "Institutional Change and Productivity Growth in China's Manufacturing 1998-2007: the Microeconomics of Creative Restructuring," LEM Papers Series 2013/07, Laboratory of Economics and Management (LEM), Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy.
    16. Watanabe, Michio & Tanaka, Katsuya, 2007. "Efficiency analysis of Chinese industry: A directional distance function approach," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(12), pages 6323-6331, December.
    17. Shuji Yao & Zhongwei Han & Dan Luo, 2010. "Performance of the Chinese Insurance Industry under Economic Reforms," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 12788.
    18. David D. Li & Changqi Wu, 2002. "The Ownership School vs. the Management School of State Enterprise Reform: Evidence from China," William Davidson Institute Working Papers Series 435, William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan.
    19. Motohashi, Kazuyuki & Yun, Xiao, 2007. "China's innovation system reform and growing industry and science linkages," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(8), pages 1251-1260, October.
    20. Carpenter, Jennifer N. & Lu, Fangzhou & Whitelaw, Robert F., 2018. "The real value of China's stock market," BOFIT Discussion Papers 2/2018, Bank of Finland Institute for Emerging Economies (BOFIT).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    China; SOEs profitability; rental rate gap; productivity differences;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F15 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Economic Integration
    • O1 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development
    • P3 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Socialist Institutions and Their Transitions
    • P42 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Other Economic Systems - - - Productive Enterprises; Factor and Product Markets; Prices

    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:ioe:doctra:305. 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: Jaime Casassus (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/iepuccl.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.