An Empirical Analysis of Provincial Productivity in China (1979–2001)

This study estimates and analyzes provincial productivity growth in China for the period 1979–2001. The Malmquist Index approach allows us to decompose productivity growth into two components, technological progress and efficiency change. Considerable productivity growth was found for most of the data period, but it was accomplished mainly through technological progress rather than efficiency improvement. Although China's capital stock has accumulated at record speed in recent years, our findings show that TFP growth slowed down significantly during 1995–2001. The study thus raises serious questions about whether China's recent growth pattern is consistent with its comparative advantages, and whether its reliance on capital accumulation can be sustained in the long run.     

Imperfect Competition, Economic Miracle, and Manufacturing Productivity Growth: Empirical Evidence from Taiwan

Several recent studies on total factor productivity (TFP) concluded that the East Asian economies benefited little from TFP growth. This study claims that the failure by previous studies to consider the effect of net indirect taxes and market imperfections resulted in the underestimation of the share of the contribution of labor input to factor income, which consequently led to the overestimation of capital share and understatement of TFP growth. Therefore, this study has modified the conventional approach of calculating factor shares by taking account of net indirect taxes and market imperfections and used the modified approach to estimate TFP growth in 16 Taiwanese manufacturing industries during the period 1979–1999. The conclusion drawn by the study is that TFP growth was the driving force behind the success of Taiwan's manufacturing industries, although many of these industries experienced a sharp decline in TFP during the 1990s.     

Trade liberalization and productivity growth in Australian manufacturing industries

Although there has been a revival of interest in the trade-growth nexus, the impact of trade liberalization on productivity gains remains empirical, given the ambiguity in the literature on this issue. This paper examines the case for Australia using annual data of eight two-digit manufacturing industries from 1968–69 to 1994–95. Unlike earlier studies, total factor productivity growth is first decomposed into technological progress and gains in technical efficiency, and the effect of trade liberalization is then investigated separately on TFP growth, as well as on each of the components of TFP growth. The empirical finding that trade liberalization has a positive and significant effect on technological progress, but no significant effect on gains in technical efficiency, adds yet another dimension to the evaluation of trade liberalization policies.     

The search for determinants of catching up: Theory, the East Asian experience and the Chinese case

This paper aims to develop a framework to identify the key determinants of a country's growth in late development and apply the framework to analyze the case of China. I analyze the possible necessary and sufficient conditions for catching up. The analyses suggest that an adequate location, initial human capital and institutional arrangements are among the key determinants; for the majority of developing countries, institutional arrangements alone dictate catching up or not. If the institutional arrangements are efficient, then a follower can achieve what I term long-term potential growth rate provided that there exists an adequate location and initial human capital. The experience of Japan and the East Asian newly industrializing economies is evaluated in the framework. Based on the framework of catching up and the experience of East Asia, the Chinese case is analyzed. The analyses suggest with high probability that China will sustain high growth and get close to its long-term potential growth rate in the coming decades: 7–10% annually in the next 15 years and 5–7% annually in the following 15 years.     

Productivity and convergence in India: A state-level analysis

Total factor productivity plays an important role in the growth of the Indian economy. Using state-level data from 1993 to 2005 that were recently made available, we find widespread regional variation in productivity changes. In the years immediately following economic liberalization, productivity growth improved technical efficiency; however, in subsequent years, productivity growth was propelled by technological progress. We find a tendency toward convergence with regard to productivity growth among states; however, the states that were technically efficient when the economic reforms were instituted remained innovative in later years.     

Productivity growth, technological progress, and efficiency change in chinese agriculture after rural economic reforms: A DEA approach

This study applies a data envelopment analysis (DEA) approach to analyze total factor productivity, technology, and efficiency changes in Chinese agricultural production from 1984 to 1993. Twenty-nine provinces in China were classified into advanced-technology and low-technology categories. The Malmquist (1953) productivity measures were decomposed into two components: technical change index and efficiency change index. The results show that total factor productivity has risen in most provinces for both technology categories during the 1984–1993 period. Technical progress was mostly attributed to Chinese agricultural productivity growth after the rural economic reforms. The deterioration in technical efficiency in many provinces indicates China has great potential to increase productivity through improved technical efficiency. Enhancing rural education and research and development (R&D) in agriculture may also help farmers to improve technical efficiency and productivity in agricultural production.     

The Total Factor Productivity Debate: Determinants of Economic Growth in East Asia

This survey article examines the recent studies of technological change or total factor productivity (TFP) as a source of growth in East Asian economies. The major objective of the paper is to show that in the end the importance of technological change in economic growth depends largely on how TFP is defined and measured. The conclusions drawn by Alwyn Young and Paul Krugman are based too much upon the assumption that all technological change is TFP. Section II reviews the conceptual and empirical literature on this subject since the 1950s. Section III surveys the TFP studies of East Asian economies, with particular reference to the recent claims that TFP is generally insignificant. Section IV discusses the prospects for East Asian economic growth and dispels the pessimism of such authors as Young and Krugman.     

The rise and fall of spatial inequalities in France: A long-run perspective

This paper studies the evolution and determinants of spatial inequalities in France. To this end, we use a unique database providing data on value-added, employment, and population over the entire set of French “Départements” in 1860, 1896, 1930, 1982, and 2000. These data cover three sectors: Agriculture, Manufacturing, and Services. Firstly, we confirm the existence of a bell-shaped process of spatial concentration in Manufacturing and Services over time. In contrast, labor productivity has been converging across departments. Secondly, we find considerable agglomeration economies over the whole period. The spatial distribution of these gains is determined mainly by market potential in the first sub-period, 1860–1930, and higher education in the second, 1930–2000.     

Agricultural productivity evolution in China: A generalized decomposition of the Luenberger-Hicks-Moorsteen productivity indicator

China has undergone a series of agricultural policy reforms since 1978. The measurement of the productivity gains and identification of the underlying drivers thereof are important facets of policy analysis. The commonly used Total Factor Productivity (TFP) measures often lack such desirable properties as completeness or independence of the direction of the optimization (orientation). In this paper, we take a top down approach by beginning with a TFP measure and then decomposing it into three mutually exclusive, exhaustive elements. In particular, we begin with the additively complete Luenberger-Hicks-Moorsteen (LHM) TFP indicator that takes into account both input and output changes when measuring productivity and then additively decompose it into measures of technological progress, technical efficiency change, and scale efficiency change. We develop a generalized decomposition of the LHM TFP indicator which encompasses both input-oriented and output-oriented changes over time. We illustrate this additively complete LHM TFP indicator using agricultural data from 31 Chinese provinces over the period 1997–2015. Our empirical results show that Chinese agricultural productivity growth (3.05% per annum) was mainly driven by technological progress (2.35% p.a.), with relatively small contributions from scale efficiency change (0.65% p.a.) and technical efficiency change (0.04% p.a.). We also found that productivity change and the relative importance of its components varied across both time and provinces.     

1993-2005年广东农业生产率的变动与分解——基于Malmquist生产率指数的实证分析

本文使用非参数的Malmquist生产率指数方法,对广东省1993—2005年间农业全要素生产率（TFP）的变动趋势进行了考察,并把TFP的增长构成分解为技术进步、纯技术效率变化、规模效率变化三个部分。结果表明：13年间广东全省农业TFP的增长主要是由技术进步推动的,纯技术效率和规模效率的下降对TFP的增长造成了不利影响;农业TFP增长的地区水平差异显著,而且增长的结构也有所不同。最后是相应的政策建议。     

环境约束下中国区域工业技术效率与生产率及其影响因素实证研究

本文运用方向性距离函数和曼奎斯特-卢恩伯格指数方法测算了环境约束下中国1998--2007年各地区工业技术效率、全要素生产率指数和环境规制成本,并对影响技术效率和全要素生产率增长的因素进行了实证分析。结果显示：环境技术效率呈现东、中、西依次递减,并且技术效率越高的地区,环境管制成本越低;考虑环境因素后,中国各地区工业全要素生产率指数降低,主要是由技术进步推动;环境约束下工业全要素生产率东部最高,西部次之,中部最低;人均GRP、FDI、工业结构、能源结构、人口密度对技术效率和全要素生产率有不同程度的影响。     

Role of TFP in China's Growth*

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 post‐reform 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.     

Understanding openness and productivity growth in China: An empirical study of the Chinese provinces

This paper investigates the effects of openness on China's regional productivity growth. We build a model of technology diffusion in which follower economies achieve productivity growth by taking advantage of technology spillovers from the world technology frontier. We hypothesize that China's regional productivity growth is a positive function of regional openness and a negative function of the current level of regional productivity. Empirical analysis in this paper focuses on how openness affects productivity growth in the Chinese provinces. We examine two effects of openness on regional productivity growth in China: the direct growth effect and the convergence effect. By using a variety of panel data regression techniques, we show that the direct growth effect of openness is the main effect while the convergence effect is insignificant. The findings of this paper lend strong support to the claim that the opening-up of China promotes the country's economic growth.     

Call For Papers: The Eighth International Convention of the East Asian Economic Association

This paper provides empirical estimates of total factor productivity (TFP) trends in a sample of 17 APEC countries over the period 1975 to 1996. TFP growth is an important measure of an economy's performance and if measured correctly it can provide valuable guidance on issues related to the assessment of sustainable growth trends. We use the Malmquist index to measure TFP growth and decompose it into an efficiency change and a technical change component. This decomposition provides extra insight on assessing sustainable growth trends. The measurement technique itself is regarded as a significant improvement over previous conventional measures of TFP growth. The results are very interesting. Japan, Thailand and primarily Indonesia and Malaysia are identified as countries exhibiting on average negative TFP growth rates in the 1975-1990 period. In all these countries as well as in South Korea and Taiwan the main cause of low TFP growth is a poor (negative) efficiency record. The average TFP growth rate for Japan and Malaysia is positive in the 1975-1996 period but the efficiency change component remains negative. In all these countries the main contributor to labour productivity growth is capital accumulation. Unlike previous studies we find no evidence of a poor TFP growth performance for Singapore. Furthermore, we estimate that most of Singapore's labour productivity growth is driven by efficiency change. Estimates of rates of convergence towards the frontier economy that is estimated (not assumed as in other studies) to be the US, are also reported.     

资源环境约束下的城市经济效率测度与差异研究——基于中部与长江经济带14市的比较

将资源和环境因素同时纳入效率研究框架中,运用SBM模型以及Malmquist指数方法测度了2006—2013年14个城市的经济效率、全要素生产率（TFP）,并将全要素生产率变动分解为技术效率和技术进步,实现了TFP增长的动态分解。研究结果表明,大多数城市存在效率改进空间;当考虑资源环境约束时,城市绿色TFP较低,技术进步是推动绿色TFP增长的主要源泉,而技术效率的作用并不明显。在生产效率的核算中,如果忽略资源环境因素的刚性约束,有可能导致经济增长效率被高估,由此得出的政策建议会带有一定的误导性。     

Human capital,trade, and economic growth

Human Capital, Trade, and Economic Growth. — Human capital, because of its special role in innovative activity and technological progress, has formed the bedrock of the new theories of endogenous growth. However, it not only serves as an engine of growth but also as a productive input along with labor and physical capital. In this study, the authors find evidence of the importance of both roles of human capital. They also find that the relationship between growth and the external effects of human capital vary according to trade regime. When literacy rates are relatively high, open economies grow about 0.65 to 1.75 percentage points more than closed economies.     

Efficiency and productivity analyses of Indonesian manufacturing industries

This study estimates the technical efficiencies and total factor productivity (TFP) growths in food, textile, chemical and metal products industries from 1993 to 2000 in Indonesia by using the stochastic frontier model. Furthermore, the determinants of inefficiency are also analyzed and TFP growth is decomposed into technological progress, a scale component, and efficiency growth. The results reveal that the food, textile, chemical and metal products sectors are on average 50.79%, 47.89%, 68.65% and 68.91% technically efficient, respectively. It is noted that ownership contributed to technical inefficiencies in the food sector; location and size contributed to technical inefficiencies in the textile sector, whereas size, ownership and age contributed to inefficiencies in the chemical and metal products sectors. We note that productivity in food, textile, and metal products sectors decreased at the rate of 2.73%, 0.26%, and 1.65%, respectively, but increased at a rate of 0.5% in the chemical sector. The decomposition of TFP growth indicates that the growths are driven positively by technical efficiency changes and negatively by technological progress in all four sectors.     

Total factor productivity, the east Asian miracle, and the world production frontier

Total Factor Productivity, the East Asian Miracle, and the World Production Frontier. — The post WWII growth of the East Asian Tiger states has stimulated the discussion about its determinants. Young and Krugman hold that high capital accumulation rather than gains in efficiency or technological progress has spurred growth. Nelson and Pack, however, have recently criticized the methods of measuring technological progress. Applying the nonparametric approach to frontier production function determination and the Malmquist index of total factor productivity change, the authors take up this criticism. They calculate productivity indicators for a sample of 18 American, Asian, and European countries. For the Tiger states, their results confirm that capital accumulation was the main source of growth in 1960-1973, whereas they find evidence for an increasing importance of efficiency improvements for the growth in 1973-1990.     

The role of production fragmentation in international business cycle synchronization in East Asia

This paper analyzes factors contributing to the observed increase in international business cycle synchronization between eight East Asian developing countries and the major developed economies of Japan and the United States. To this end, a two-country dynamic general equilibrium (DGE) model is proposed which focuses on the role of production fragmentation among these countries. A key feature of the model is that it includes the trade in differentiated capital goods, which are added to the capital stock for production, and the technology embodied in these capital goods. The parameters of the model are calibrated using actual data of the countries included. Model simulations are conducted for two periods (1993–1997 and 1999–2005), before and after the Asian financial crisis, showing that the increase in business cycle synchronization can be attributed mainly to the growing fragmentation of production activities.     

Measuring Green Productivity Growth for China's Manufacturing Sectors: 1991–2000*

Over the past two decades, China has sustained rapid economic growth of 8–10 percent, part of which is attributed to the positive total factor productivity (TFP) growth. However, this extraordinary economic performance has been accompanied by severe environmental pollution and associated health damage. The conventional TFP method is biased in interpreting the progress of technology change because it does not consider non‐marketable residues, such as environmental pollution, and, hence, efficiency improvements in terms of pollution abatement technology and environmentally friendly management are ignored. This bias might direct our attention to less efficient use of environmental friendly abatement technologies or send wrong signals to policy‐makers. To address this issue, the present paper applies a modified welfare‐based green TFP approach, treating environmental damage as non‐desirable (negative) residual output. Therefore, environmental efficiency is taken into account to accurately interpret technological progress from a social welfare point of view. Based on a national time‐series input–output table, historical capital and labor input data for China and sectoral level air pollution emission data from 1991 to 2000, the empirical results suggest that with increasingly stringent environmental regulations, many pollution intensive sectors, such as electricity, primary metal and chemical industries, improved their environmental efficiency in the late 1990s. However, because of the weak environmental regulations in construction and transportation, and in sectors primarily composed of small private or township and village industrial enterprises, firms within these industries contributed to increasing environmental degradation.