Place-based policies, state-led industrialisation, and regional development: Evidence from China's Great Western Development Programme

Junxue Jia, Guangrong Ma, Cong Qin and Liyan Wang

European Economic Review, 2020, vol. 123, issue C

Abstract: This study evaluates the effects of a prominent place-based policy in China—the Great Western Development Programme. In 2000, China's central government targeted inland provinces in Western China for considerable investment and preferential treatment to accelerate their industrialisation. Using a spatially discontinuous design, we find that the programme has succeeded in accelerating industrialisation, raising the annual GDP growth rate by 1.6 percentage points in the targeted regions. However, no such effects are observed on nonfarm employment or wages. Moreover, the GDP growth effects primarily result from massive physical investment rather than the growth of total factor productivity.

Keywords: Place-based policy; Industrialisation; Regional development (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O14 O25 R11 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (23)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0014292120300301
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:eecrev:v:123:y:2020:i:c:s0014292120300301

DOI: 10.1016/j.euroecorev.2020.103398

Access Statistics for this article

European Economic Review is currently edited by T.S. Eicher, A. Imrohoroglu, E. Leeper, J. Oechssler and M. Pesendorfer

More articles in European Economic Review from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().