IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iza/izadps/dp13017.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Technical Progress and Induced Innovation in China: A Variable Profit Function Approach

Author

Listed:
  • Wong, Gary

    (University of Macau)

  • Fleisher, Belton M.

    (Ohio State University)

  • Zhao, Min Qiang

    (Xiamen University)

  • McGuire, William H.

    (University of Washington Tacoma)

Abstract

We propose a new methodology to estimate empirically the input price-induced technical change and total factor productivity (TFP) growth in China. Our primary goal is to test Hicks' induced innovation hypothesis by examining whether technical change in China has been induced by sharp increase in input prices that have accompanied its rapid economic growth. Utilizing the idea of a firm's two-stage optimization problem, we develop a new parametric form of the variable profit function wherein the derived input demand and output supply functions can be easily constrained to be regular, and the functional structure is parsimonious in the number of parameters. Applying this methodology to Chinese time series data for 1986–2015, we find that not only is wage-induced innovation significant and quantitatively important, but also that it substantially buffers a long-term decline in TFP growth that would otherwise be quite substantial. We conclude that China's economic growth is predominantly driven by wage-induced innovation along with massive injection of heavily subsidized physical inputs in public works and huge investment in industrial sectors.

Suggested Citation

  • Wong, Gary & Fleisher, Belton M. & Zhao, Min Qiang & McGuire, William H., 2020. "Technical Progress and Induced Innovation in China: A Variable Profit Function Approach," IZA Discussion Papers 13017, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp13017
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://docs.iza.org/dp13017.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Giancarlo Moschini & Karl D. Meilke, 1989. "Modeling the Pattern of Structural Change in U.S. Meat Demand," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 71(2), pages 253-261.
    2. Robert C. Feenstra & Robert Inklaar & Marcel P. Timmer, 2015. "The Next Generation of the Penn World Table," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 105(10), pages 3150-3182, October.
    3. Cooper, Russel J. & McLaren, Keith R. & Rehman, Fahd & Szewczyk, Wojciech A., 2015. "Economic welfare evaluation in an era of rapid technological change," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 38-40.
    4. Diewert, Walter E & Wales, Terence J, 1987. "Flexible Functional Forms and Global Curvature Conditions," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 55(1), pages 43-68, January.
    5. Subal Kumbhakar, 2002. "Productivity measurement: a profit function approach," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 9(5), pages 331-334.
    6. Ludo Peeters & Yves Surry, 2000. "Incorporating price-induced innovation in a symmetric generalised McFadden cost function with several outputs," Post-Print hal-01593889, HAL.
    7. Pinar Celikkol & Spiro Stefanou, 1999. "Measuring the Impact of Price-Induced Innovation on Technological Progress: Application to the U.S. Food Processing and Distribution Sector," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 12(2), pages 135-151, September.
    8. Chambers,Robert G., 1988. "Applied Production Analysis," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521314275, September.
    9. Moschini, Giancarlo & Moro, Daniele, 1994. "Autocorrelation specification in singular equation systems," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 46(4), pages 303-309, December.
    10. Wu, Yanrui, 2000. "Is China's economic growth sustainable? A productivity analysis," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 11(3), pages 278-296.
    11. Zhongxiu Zhao & Kevin Honglin Zhang, 2010. "FDI and Industrial Productivity in China: Evidence from Panel Data in 2001–06," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 14(3), pages 656-665, August.
    12. Chang-Tai Hsieh & Peter J. Klenow, 2009. "Misallocation and Manufacturing TFP in China and India," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 124(4), pages 1403-1448.
    13. Ng, Serena, 1995. "Testing for Homogeneity in Demand Systems When the Regressors Are Nonstationary," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 10(2), pages 147-163, April-Jun.
    14. Chen, Shiyi & Jefferson, Gary H. & Zhang, Jun, 2011. "Structural change, productivity growth and industrial transformation in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 22(1), pages 133-150, March.
    15. Esposti, Roberto & Pierani, Pierpaolo, 2008. "Price-induced technical progress in Italian agriculture," Review of Agricultural and Environmental Studies - Revue d'Etudes en Agriculture et Environnement (RAEStud), Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA), vol. 89(4).
    16. Chaofan Chen & Qingxin Lan & Ming Gao & Yawen Sun, 2018. "Green Total Factor Productivity Growth and Its Determinants in China’s Industrial Economy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-25, April.
    17. Subhash C. Sharma, 2002. "The Morishima Elasticity of Substitution for the Variable Profit Function and the Demand for Imports in the United States," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 43(1), pages 115-135, February.
    18. N. Gregory Mankiw & David Romer & David N. Weil, 1992. "A Contribution to the Empirics of Economic Growth," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 107(2), pages 407-437.
    19. Eunsuk Hong & Laixiang Sun, 2011. "Foreign Direct Investment and Total Factor Productivity in China: A Spatial Dynamic Panel Analysis," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 73, pages 771-791, December.
    20. William A. Barnett, 2004. "Tastes and Technology: Curvature Is Not Sufficient for Regularity," Contributions to Economic Analysis, in: Functional Structure and Approximation in Econometrics, pages 429-433, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    21. Kohli, Ulrich, 1993. "A Symmetric Normalized Quadratic GNP Function and the U.S. Demand for Imports and Supply of Exports," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 34(1), pages 243-255, February.
    22. Cooper, Russel J. & McLaren, Keith R. & Wong, Gary K. K., 2001. "On the empirical exploitation of consumers' profit functions in static analyses," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 72(2), pages 181-187, August.
    23. Holt, Matthew T., 1998. "Autocorrelation specification in singular equation systems: A further look," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 58(2), pages 135-141, February.
    24. Ludo Peeters & Yves Surry, 2000. "Incorporating Price-Induced Innovation in a Symmetric Generalised McFadden Cost Function with Several Outputs," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 14(1), pages 53-70, July.
    25. Shunji Oniki, 2000. "Testing the Induced Innovation Hypothesis in a Cointegrating Regression Model," The Japanese Economic Review, Japanese Economic Association, vol. 51(4), pages 544-554, December.
    26. Ramon E. Lopez, 1984. "Estimating Substitution and Expansion Effects Using a Profit Function Framework," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 66(3), pages 358-367.
    27. Ulrich R. Kohli, 1978. "A Gross National Product Function and the Derived Demand for Imports and Supply of Exports," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 11(2), pages 167-182, May.
    28. 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.
    29. repec:bla:rdevec:v:14:y:2010:i:s1:p:656-665 is not listed on IDEAS
    30. Cooper, Russel J & McLaren, Keith R, 1996. "A System of Demand Equations Satisfying Effectively Global Regularity Conditions," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 78(2), pages 359-364, May.
    31. Olmstead, Alan L & Rhode, Paul, 1993. "Induced Innovation in American Agriculture: A Reconsideration," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 101(1), pages 100-118, February.
    32. Jiayun Xu & Qilin Mao, 2018. "On the relationship between intermediate input imports and export quality in China," The Economics of Transition, The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, vol. 26(3), pages 429-467, July.
    33. Giannis Karagiannis & George Mergos, 2000. "Total Factor Productivity Growth and Technical Change in a Profit Function Framework," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 14(1), pages 31-51, July.
    34. Moses Abramovitz, 1956. "Resource and Output Trends in the United States since 1870," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number abra56-1.
    35. Ohtani, Kazuhiro & Katayama, Sei-ichi, 1986. "A gradual switching regression model with autocorrelated errors," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 21(2), pages 169-172.
    36. Coelli, T J, 1996. "Measurement of Total Factor Productivity Growth and Biases in Technological Change in Western Australian Agriculture," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 11(1), pages 77-91, Jan.-Feb..
    37. Moses Abramovitz, 1956. "Resource and Output Trends in the United States since 1870," NBER Chapters, in: Resource and Output Trends in the United States since 1870, pages 1-23, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    38. J. M. Gil & B. Dhehibi & M. Ben Kaabia & A. M. Angulo, 2004. "Non-stationarity and the import demand for virgin olive oil in the European Union," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 36(16), pages 1859-1869.
    39. BAI, Chong-En & QIAN, Zhenjie, 2010. "The factor income distribution in China: 1978-2007," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 21(4), pages 650-670, December.
    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. Ka Kei Gary Wong & Min Qiang Zhao, 2023. "Induced innovation and its impact on productivity growth in China: a latent variable approach," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 65(1), pages 371-399, July.

    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. Ka Kei Gary Wong & Min Qiang Zhao, 2023. "Induced innovation and its impact on productivity growth in China: a latent variable approach," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 65(1), pages 371-399, July.
    2. Voigt, Peter, 2004. "Russlands Weg vom Plan zum Markt: Sektorale Trends und regionale Spezifika. Eine Analyse der Produktivitäts- und Effizienzentwicklungen in der Transformationsphase," Studies on the Agricultural and Food Sector in Transition Economies, Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Development in Transition Economies (IAMO), volume 28, number 93021, September.
    3. Pierani, Pierpaolo & Rizzi, Pier Luigi, 2003. "Technology and efficiency in a panel of Italian dairy farms: an SGM restricted cost function approach," Agricultural Economics, Blackwell, vol. 29(2), pages 195-209, October.
    4. Jones, C.I., 2016. "The Facts of Economic Growth," Handbook of Macroeconomics, in: J. B. Taylor & Harald Uhlig (ed.), Handbook of Macroeconomics, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 0, pages 3-69, Elsevier.
    5. Guy Chapda Nana & Bruno Larue, 2014. "Imposing curvature conditions on flexible functional forms for GNP functions," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 47(4), pages 1411-1440, December.
    6. Chapda Nana, Guy & Larue, Bruno, 2012. "Imposing Curvature Conditions on Flexible Functional Forms to GNP Functions," Working Papers 123308, University of Laval, Center for Research on the Economics of the Environment, Agri-food, Transports and Energy (CREATE).
    7. Roberto Esposti & Pierpaolo Pierani, 2008. "Price-induced technical progress in Italian agriculture," Review of Agricultural and Environmental Studies - Revue d'Etudes en Agriculture et Environnement, INRA Department of Economics, vol. 89(4), pages 5-28.
    8. Jesus Felipe & John S.L. McCombie, 2013. "The Aggregate Production Function and the Measurement of Technical Change," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 1975.
    9. Barnett, William A. & Serletis, Apostolos, 2008. "Consumer preferences and demand systems," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 147(2), pages 210-224, December.
    10. Nicholas Crafts & Pieter Woltjer, 2021. "Growth Accounting In Economic History: Findings, Lessons And New Directions," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(3), pages 670-696, July.
    11. Young Eun Kim & Norman V. Loayza, 2019. "Productivity Growth: Patterns and Determinants across the World," Revista Economía, Fondo Editorial - Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, vol. 42(84), pages 36-93.
    12. De Blander, Rembert & Frahan, Bruno Henry de, 2011. "Analysis of Technical and Policy Changes for Belgian Dairy Farms Using an Estimated Augmented SGM Cost Function," 2011 International Congress, August 30-September 2, 2011, Zurich, Switzerland 114546, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    13. Christopher J. O'Donnell & Alicia N. Rambaldi & Howard E. Doran, 2001. "Estimating economic relationships subject to firm- and time-varying equality and inequality constraints," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 16(6), pages 709-726.
    14. Belton M. Fleisher & William H. McGuire & Xiaojun Wang & Min Qiang Zhao, 2021. "Induced innovation: evidence from China’s secondary industry," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 53(52), pages 6075-6093, November.
    15. Edinaldo Tebaldi, 2016. "The Dynamics of Total Factor Productivity and Institutions," Journal of Economic Development, Chung-Ang Unviersity, Department of Economics, vol. 41(4), pages 1-25, December.
    16. De Visscher, Stef & Eberhardt, Markus & Everaert, Gerdie, 2020. "Estimating and testing the multicountry endogenous growth model," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 125(C).
    17. Chong-En Bai & Qiong Zhang, 2017. "Is the People's Republic of China's current slowdown a cyclical downturn or a long-term trend? A productivity-based analysis," Journal of the Asia Pacific Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 22(1), pages 29-46, January.
    18. Gelb, Alan & Meyer, Christian J. & Ramachandran, Vijaya, 2014. "Development as diffusion: Manufacturing productivity and sub-Saharan Africa's missing middle," WIDER Working Paper Series 042, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    19. Wieck, Christine & Heckelei, Thomas, 2004. "Development Of Marginal Cost Distributions In Dairy Production Regions Of The Eu," 2004 Annual meeting, August 1-4, Denver, CO 19943, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    20. Pinedo, Wilman Iglesias; Fulginiti, Lilyan E.; Perrin, Richard K., 2024. "The Cost of Armed Conflict to Agriculture in Colombia," Research on World Agricultural Economy, Nan Yang Academy of Sciences Pte Ltd (NASS), vol. 5(3), September.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    induced innovation; total factor productivity; variable profit functions; China;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D22 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Firm Behavior: Empirical Analysis
    • D24 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Production; Cost; Capital; Capital, Total Factor, and Multifactor Productivity; Capacity
    • O30 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - General
    • 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:iza:izadps:dp13017. 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: Holger Hinte (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/izaaade.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.