Explaining Spatial Convergence of China’s Industrial Productivity

Paul Deng () and Gary Jefferson

No 32, Working Papers from Brandeis University, Department of Economics and International Business School

Abstract: This paper investigates the conditions that may auger a reversal of China’s increasingly unequal levels of regional industrial productivity during China’s first two decades of economic reform. Using international and Chinese firm and industry data over the period 1995-2004, we estimate a productivity growth-technology gap reaction function. We find that as China’s coastal industry has closed the technology gap with the international frontier relative to interior regions, labor productivity growth in the coastal region has begun to slow in relation to the interior. This may serve as an early indicator of China’s initial movement toward reversing the widespread income inequality.

Keywords: Inequality; Economic Growth; Productivity Convergence; Regional Disparity; Sustainability; China; International Comparison of Productivity (ICOP) (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O18 O30 O4 R11 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 31 pages
Date: 2011-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-bec, nep-dev, nep-eff, nep-geo, nep-tra and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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http://www.brandeis.edu/economics/RePEc/brd/doc/Brandeis_WP32.pdf First version, 2011 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Explaining Spatial Convergence of China's Industrial Productivity (2011)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:brd:wpaper:32

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