Industrial and Aggregate Measures of Productivity Growth in China, 1982�2000 (original) (raw)

POST-REFORM PRODUCTIVITY PERFORMANCE AND SOURCES OF GROWTH IN CHINESE INDUSTRY: 1980-85

Review of Income and Wealth, 1992

This paper examines the productivity growth and its sources in 39 Chinese industries in the post-reform period 1980–85. We use both the gross-output and value-added models to isolate the contributions of labor, capital, materials and technical efficiency to growth in industrial output. Using new data from the National Industrial Census of China (1988) for large and medium-size enterprises, we find that Chinese industries, in particular, those in the manufacturing experienced sharp increases in total factor productivity growth in the 1984–85 period as compared to the 1980–84 period. Moreover, collective and private enterprises show higher output and total factor productivity gains than do state enterprises. Our regression results show that total factor productivity gains are closely tied to increases in retained profits and the proportion of total employees that are technical workers. However, labor bonuses have a negative effect on total factor productivity growth.

Role of TFP in China's Growth*

Asian Economic Journal, 2006

This paper uses the dual approach to growth accounting to examine the role of total factor productivity (TFP) in recent Chinese growth. Most previous growth accounting studies on China have followed the primal approach, which depends heavily on the national income accounts. Unfortunately, despite efforts to rectify them, Chinese national income accounts data continue to have problems that affect primal approach growth accounting results. The dual approach, in contrast, allows independent price information to play a role. Recent research has focused on the following two questions: (i) How significant has TFP's role been in postreform Chinese growth? (ii) Has TFP growth rate slowed down in more recent years? This paper finds that: (i) the TFP growth rate for mainland China computed using the dual approach also proves high; and (ii) there has been some slowdown in TFP growth rate in recent years.

Total Factor Productivity Growth in Chinese Industry: 1952–2005

Oxford Development Studies, 2009

This paper presents a timely assessment of Chinese industrial productivity performances over the period 1952-2005. Total factor productivity (TFP) growth estimates are based on a Cobb-Douglas specification with aggregated annual data set. In this study, we tackle some theoretical and methodological issues raised by critics of previous studies. First of all, the use of economic tools allows us to relax some restrictive hypothesis of the neoclassical growth framework such as competitive market behaviour, constant returns to scale production technology and Hicks neutral technological change. In addition, our TFP growth estimates are adjusted for business fluctuations. The paper also deals with the autocorrelation issue prevailing in most previous studies. Our major findings are: (i) In Chinese industry, between 1952 and 2004 capital accumulation has been the main engine of economic takeoff. (ii) Over the same period, TFP growth contributed significantly to economic growth. (iii) TFP gains have exhibited a sharply increasing pattern since the early 1990's, along with the accelerated integration of China into the world economy.

Productivity change in Chinese industry: 1953-1985

Journal of Comparative Economics, 1988

Previous studies of productivity change in Chinese industry show that stagnating productivity has persisted into the 1980s in spite of China's reform efforts. Once nonindustrial resources are excluded from published factor input data and fixed assets are corrected for inflation, China's state industry shows a positive rate of multifactor productivity growth over the period 1953-1985 with productivity accelerating from the late 1970s. Weights used to combine the input data are obtained from estimates of Cobb-Douglas and translog production functions rather than, as in most other studies, from factor income shares or arbitrary weights.

Sectoral productivity growth in China

2002

Rapid economic growth in the 1990s in China raised the question of whether the high growth was achieved by augmenting economic scales and increasing investment, through productivity lifting and efficiency improvement, or both. This paper analyses and evaluates total factor productivity growth and technical efficiency in five sectors that encompass the full spectrum of the economy. Assuming a constant rate of technological progress, a random effects panel data model is estimated to quantify total factor productivity growth over the period 1991 to 1997, which covers the prominent eighth five-year period. The panel consists of data from 30 Chinese provinces on output, capital and labour for (i) Agriculture, (ii) Industry, (iii) Construction, (iv) Transportation, Post and Telecommunications, and (v) Services. Strong total factor productivity growth was recorded in Agriculture and Transportation, Post and Telecommunications over the sample period. In the other three sectors, total factor productivity growth slowed down and even declined.

Economic Reform and Productivity Convergence in China

Arthaniti: Journal of Economic Theory and Practice, 2018

This article investigates the effect of physical and human capital formation on the productivity growth of China. We focus on the market reform factors including ownership shifts, population policy, openness and fiscal expenditures on education, and the convergence of productivity growth within the traditional four economic regions of China. We find that Chinese economic miracle is mainly pushed by the (physical) capital service rather than human capital. The physical capital inputs contribute even more to the economic growth of China since the returns to education decrease with the education expansion and increasing tuition fees after 1994. The four economic regions of China show different growth patterns. The capital inputs mostly help the labour productivity (LP) growth of the West region and the wage growth of the interior region, but human capital formation contributes to the total factor productivity (TFP) of all four regions. Moreover, provinces within each region present str...

Productivity growth in China: evidence from Chinese provinces

University of Nebraska-Lincoln, mimeo, 2003

Young (1995) estimated Total Factor Productivity (TFP) growth for Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore and South Korea. He reported moderate growth rates for these four regions. This means that rapid growth of GDP in these four economies is due mainly to fast increase of inputs. Young (2000) also estimated the TFP growth rate of China to be 1.4% per year during