Job creation or job relocation? Identifying the impact of China's special economic zones on local employment and industrial agglomeration

Since the early 1980s, special economic zones (SEZs) in China have benefited from targeted place-based policies intended to promote local employment and economic growth. What remain poorly understood is whether SEZs serve to give birth to new firms, or rather attract and support the re-establishment of firms from other places. To address this question, this paper examines the impact of SEZs on employment growth in rural counties in China. Using ASIF panel data representing the activity of manufacturing firms for the period 1999 to 2008, this paper assesses the employment effects of SEZs according to firm births, relocation, expansion, and firm closure. By matching counties with future SEZs as comparison groups, the difference-in-differences estimates show that SEZs significantly increase employment in rural counties due to the creation of new firms and the expansion of existing large firms; in contrast, SEZs fail to promote firms to move in and restrain firms from moving out. Further, data analysis reveals significant regional heterogeneity, with the employment effects of SEZs on firm entry strongest for the eastern coastal region. Finally, we confirm that SEZs tend to reduce local industrial agglomeration in the eastern and central regions.     

Special economic zones as an instrument to stimulate export production and economic growth within South Africa

The opening up of export markets and the consequent shift towards export‐oriented economic growth, in contrast to the previous focus on import substitution and protectionist policies, raise the question of the most appropriate strategy to be followed to attain this objective. In view of the protracted and extensive protection of local industry in the past. It could be expected that the manufacturing sector will not immediately be able to compete in international markets. This premise therefore excludes the introduction of an economy‐wide reduction in the level of protection in an effort to increase economic efficiency in general to enable South Africa to compete in foreign markets. This article then explores a second‐best option, namely the introduction of special economic zones (SEZs) as a mechanism whereby demarcated areas or individual firms are exempted from customs duties, import taxes and controls without exposing the entire protected domestic economy to the possible disruption of free international trade. The article specifically elaborates on what type of SEZs are the most appropriate for South Africa's circumstances, comparing the advantages and disadvantages of export processing zones (EPZs) with export processing units (EPUs).     

The impact of special economic zones on producer services productivity: Evidence from China

Do Special Economic Zones (SEZs) promote the productivity of producer services, and what are the channels of the effect? To shed light on these questions, we collect a dataset of 1.46 million producer service firms on the basis of the Second Economic Census of China. We then use the dataset to prove the productivity advantages of producer service industry in the SEZs. Guided by a “new” new economic geography model, we estimate these advantages using the IV model and unconditional distribution characteristic-parameter correspondence method. Results imply that agglomeration effect is the source of the productivity advantages of the producer services in the SEZs. This effect is positively correlated with the local manufacturing scale. A high industrial relevancy between the producer services and the leading manufacturing industry in the SEZs results in a strong agglomeration effect. The preferential policy in the SEZs reduces the entry barrier for firms and attracts a high proportion of inefficient firms entering with the selection effect. This result has a negative impact on promoting the productivity of producer services. The conclusions are robust in different circumstances.     

谷牧与我国经济特区的创建

谷牧是我国创建经济特区的重要组织领导者和积极推动者,为经济特区的建立与发展做出了重要贡献。他率团出访欧洲,积极寻找我国对外开放的切入点,迈出了我国对外开放的坚实步伐。为筹办经济特区,他殚精竭虑,未雨绸缪,进行了大胆探索与实践,打开了我国对外开放的重要突破口。在经济特区遭受非议和责难时,他认真调研,冷静思考,科学分析,以雄辩的事实证明中央设立经济特区决策的正确性,为加快经济特区建设提供了强有力的支撑点。     

The Impact of Special Economic Zones and Government Intervention on Firm Productivity: The Case of Batam,Indonesia

Various studies have explored the effects of industrial agglomeration and special economic zones (SEZs) in Asia, but there has been a lack of data-driven analysis of SEZ performance. This paper provides a case study on Batam, which has been developed as an SEZ through government-to-government (G2G) cooperation, offering lessons for other developing countries. The study examines the effects of industrial zones, foreign investment and government intervention on firm productivity, using an ex-post evaluation method and econometric models. The paper does not find conclusive evidence that Batam’s status as an SEZ affects firm productivity and growth. Although firm agglomeration proves beneficial for firm productivity, it is not clear that SEZ policy has driven this productivity. The paper argues that government policies should stimulate innovation and inter-firm cooperation to increase knowledge spillovers and technology transfer instead of focusing on attracting investment.     

Preferential policies and income inequality: Evidence from Special Economic Zones and Open Cities in China

This paper examines whether cities with preferential policies have higher inequality in household disposable income per capita than cities without preferential policies in urban China. “Preferential policies” refers to the autonomy and deregulation given to Special Economic Zones (SEZs) and Open Cities, allowing them to experiment with market policies and reforms, as the country moves from a state-controlled economy towards a market-oriented economy. While the effect of these policies on economic growth is extensively documented, their relationship with income inequality remains undetermined. Subgroup decompositions of income inequality, using the China Household Income Project's urban datasets of over 6000 households and 20,000 individuals from of up to 70 cities from 12 provinces, were used to identify income inequality gaps between cities with and without preferential policies. The results reveal that while income inequality increased in urban China from 1988 to 2007, the change was lower for cities awarded preferential policies across regions. Furthermore, the decompositions by region indicate that cities receiving preferential policy treatment had higher income growth but a lesser increase in income inequality than cities without preferential policies in each region. Finally, cities receiving preferential policies were able to increase the share of income of the poorest 40% of households while reducing the share of the richest 10%.     

International trade and economic growth: evidence from a panel ARDL-PMG approach

The purpose of this work is to study the impact of trade openness on the economic growth of the countries bordering the Mediterranean using a panel of eight countries from 1975 to 2016. We apply ARDL panel which is a technique recently developed. We study the effects of openness to international trade on economic growth while incorporating economic policy variables. The results show that the variables of commercial and financial openness favor economic growth. The free trade agreements that the European Union has signed with certain countries in the Mediterranean basin are designed above all to encourage greater regional economic integration and an increase in their potential growth. Therefore, our findings show that the financial sector is slow to affect economic growth in these countries. This study reveals that human capital and the investment rate support the economic growth of our sample. In addition, we conclude that a process of economic convergence has begun in these countries. A causal analysis was carried out we found an unidirectional causality ranging from economic growth to trade openness.

     

Political instability, policy uncertainty, and economic growth: An empirical investigation

This paper elaborates upon the effect of political stability on economic growth using a novel approach. Unlike the literature on growth that emphasizes the turnover of decision makers, this paper focuses on the volatility of economic policies as the relevant indicator of stability. The literature on growth ignores the microeconomic instability associated with frequent changes of government policies. The empirical results of this paper indicate that the effect of political instability on economic growth is not conclusive. Most of the commonly used proxies for political instability have failed to explain growth differences across countries. The political instability indices have no significant effect on growth when a reasonable set of core variables is also included in the regression equation. The results also show that almost all of the policy uncertainty variables are significantly and negatively correlated with economic growth. However, the instability of economic policies has no significant impact on the accumulation of capital.     

Financial Sector Reforms,Bank Performance and Economic Growth: Evidence from Zambia

Abstract: This paper investigates the effects of market‐based financial sector reforms on the competitiveness and efficiency of commercial banks, and economic growth, in Zambia. The results show that reforms adopted in Phase II (strengthening of regulatory and supervisory, payments and settlements, and financial operations frameworks) and Phase III (implementation of a comprehensive financial sector development plan) had significant positive effects on bank cost efficiency. Macroeconomic variables such as per capita GDP and inflation were insignificant. Further, using an endogenous growth model in which industrial production is a proxy for GDP growth, it was found that bank cost efficiency, financial depth, Phase II and III financial sector reforms, the degree of economic openness, and rate of inflation were significant determinants of economic growth. Phase II policies and the inflation rate have negative effects while the rest of the variables have positive effects on economic growth. Some plausible policy lessons are offered.     

中国经济增长与环境污染之间关系的理论解释与贝叶斯回归分析

环境污染在两个方面改变了经济增长模型,一方面它是产出的联合产品,另一方面它给消费者带来负效用。我们分析了以下几个问题：环境保护与经济增长是否相容;长期来看无污染积累的可持续增长是否可能;环境对经济增长的影响;如果引入环境因素,我们关注的关键变量如：收入、消费、资本以及环境污染的最优路径如何变化,据此可以推出哪些可驳斥的推断;观测数据与环境库茨涅茨曲线的理论推断特征是否相符。文章根据标准的经济学理论基础假设构建了一个理论模型,在设定了偏好、技术、禀赋、信息后,求出动态一般均衡解路径。使用环境污染的观测数据,附加关键参数的先验分布,运用贝叶斯推断求出参数的后验分布对理论模型的推断进行验证。文章的主要贡献是对环境库茨涅茨曲线采用了不同于传统回归分析的贝叶斯回归技术,并得出了有意义的分析结果。     

健康、教育和经济增长:理论及跨国证据

本文基于Soares(2005)的模型,导出婴儿死亡率和成年人预期寿命对人力资本积累以及最后对经济增长的影响效果,然后用跨国数据对模型的预测进行验证。本文模型的独特之处在于区分了成年人对小孩和对成年人自己的人力资本投资,揭示了成年人寿命增加对经济行为的影响的作用机制。在实证检验中,本文除了采用地理、气候等指标作为工具变量外,还独创性的利用因为实施大范围免疫计划的时间不同而产生的外生的免疫率的国别差异来解决健康的内生性问题。本文的结论对中国和发展中国家经济增长中健康的重要作用具有启发意义。     

进出口贸易与大连地区经济增长实证研究

本文选取1990～2006年度大连市统计数据,建立计量经济模型,在模型中加入进口、消费、投资等解释变量,利用协整检验和Granger因果检验对大连市进出口贸易和经济增长关系进行实证分析。实证结果表明大连市的经济增长与进口、出口、消费、投资之间存在着一种长期稳定的关系,进口、出口和投资明显促进了经济增长,而消费对经济增长的影响则并不显著。进、出口贸易与经济增长之间存在单向的因果关系。并在此基础上提出大连市经济发展的政策建议。     

基础设施投资效率与经济增长间的关系研究

基础设施建设是发展中国家发展的基础和原动力，且基础设施投资效率的高低关系到国家经济增长的态势。以东南亚国家为样本，设计投入指标和以人均 GDP 为主的产出指标，结合 SSBM 模型测算分析各国基础设施投资效率和趋势，并利用ESDA 模型对空间耦合协调度进行分析。同时，通过定义被解释变量、解释变量和控制变量对进行基础设施投资效率与经济增长间的关系实证研究。研究结果表明，东南亚国家在 2010 年至 2020 年间的基础设施投资效率在波动中提升，彼此间的差异性不大，且呈现聚拢趋势。软硬件基础设施投入对经济增长的影响和显著性最大。     

Public spending and economic growth: evidence from Ghana (1970–2004)

Governments undertake expenditures to pursue a variety of objectives, one of which is economic growth. This paper examines aggregated and disaggregated expenditure on economic growth in Ghana over the period 1970–2004. Expenditure on education and health represents human capital development, while expenditure on roads and waterways captures infrastructure development. The study reveals that the aggregated government expenditure retarded economic growth. The study's findings show that expenditures on health and infrastructure promote economic growth, while those on education had no significant impact in the short run. In addition, the political economy variables?namely the nature of governance (democracy) and political instability (years of changes in government and military dictatorship)?proved significant in explaining Ghana's economic growth over the study period.     

Entrepreneurship,private economy and growth: Evidence from China

This paper examines the impact of entrepreneurship on economic growth by using a panel data set of 29 provinces in China over 20 years. Two indicators of entrepreneurship are defined and introduced into the traditional growth regression framework that is estimated using the system generalized method of moments. We also use the ratio of staff and workers of state-owned enterprises and per capita sown land area as the instrumental variables to identify the causal effect of entrepreneurship on economic growth. Our results suggest that entrepreneurship has a significant positive effect on economic growth and this finding is robust even after we control for other demographic and institutional variables. Our study provides some evidence that may be used as a basis for evaluating the effect of China's policy on private business which has been increasingly relaxed since the late 1970s.     

休闲时间与经济效率——来自OECD国家的证据

本文认为在考察经济增长的过程中，除了需要关注人均变量，更需要关注“时人均”变量，因为后者代表单位时间内的人均变量，可用来衡量经济效率，而经济效率是经济增长潜力的源泉。为此，本文将工作时间、受教育时间和休闲时间引入内生增长模型，并突出考虑了休闲对经济个体效率的积极作用以及休闲对技术水平的外部效应，由此刻画了休闲与经济效率之间的非线性关系。随后，在模型结论的框架下，引用21个0ECD成员国近二十多年来的面板数据研究了上述非线性关系，并具体求解到经济体的最优休闲时间。由此说明，可以通过对休闲时间的合理调整与管理来达成最理想的经济效率。     

加工贸易进口、一般贸易进口与经济增长的关系——一个协整和影响机制的经验研究

为了明确进口对经济增长的作用,本文分别考察了加工贸易进口、一般贸易进口与我国经济增长的关系。本文首先用人均国内生产总值对两个贸易变量进行回归,然后建立协整和误差修正模型分析进口与经济增长的长短期均衡关系,最后将人均资本、技术水平、人力资本存量和制度变化分别对加工贸易进口、一般贸易进口进行回归分析,得出进口对经济增长的影响途径。结论是,加工贸易进口与我国经济增长的关系较为紧密,主要是通过影响制度变革促进经济增长,其短期效应较为明显;一般贸易进口对经济增长的作用发挥较为迟缓,但两者存在长期均衡关系,作用途径是人均资本的提升。     

环境污染、人力资本与内生经济增长：一个简单的模型

为研究经济增长和环境污染之间的关系,本文建立了两个不同的经济增长模型,并分别在新古典和内生经济增长的框架下考察了环境污染、人力资本和经济增长的内在关系,同时还在经济增长的均衡路径上考察了不同变量对可持续发展的可能影响。模型的结果表明,经济增长并不必然导致环境恶化,可持续发展是有可能实现的。进一步的比较静态分析显示,要使经济增长走向可持续发展,必须增加人力资本的积累、实行严格的污染排放标准、坚持可持续发展理念、提高社会的环境保护意识、促进环保型生产技术的进步等。     

我国经济增长率之辨：8％还是20％

传统的经济理论以生产函数为基础,认为宏观统计变量之间是以技术为基础的投入产出关系。本文认为,目前所有的国民核算统计变量都是货币量值的,是由社会关系或者说由货币金融体系决定的。沿着这一思路,本文将重新解释我国的经济增长和有效需求等一系列宏观经济问题。     

Institutional differences as sources of growth differences

Until recently, most studies investigating the determinants of growth failed to incorporate the importance of institutions into the empirical analysis. This paper highlights the importance of institutions on growth and development and evaluates the empirical results on the effect of institutions on growth and investment. It provides ample evidence that the institutional environment in which an economic activity takes place is an important determinant of economic growth. This paper uses alternative measures of institutional quality to capture the role of institutions in explaining growth differences across countries. When these institutional variables are incorporated into the core regression equations as additional explanatory variables in two different sample periods, both samples yield similar results. The empirical results reveal that countries with high levels of economic growth are characterized by high levels of economic freedom and judicial efficiency, low levels of corruption, effective bureaucracy, and protected private property.