Does economic growth affect urbanization? New evidence from China and the Chinese National Congress

Using a panel of Chinese provinces during 1985–2008, we propose an estimation strategy to study the within-province effect that per capita GDP growth may have on the urbanization rate. Our approach exploits the timing of the National Congress of the Communist Party, which is a 5-yearly meeting where national economic policies are debated. Because economic growth is a key policy objective and given that the Chinese fiscal system is highly decentralized, the recurring National Congress may encourage a systematic pattern of spending by provincial governments to foster growth. We find that per capita GDP growth is associated with the timing of the National Congress, and exploiting instrumental variables that convey this timing information, we also find that growth has a statistically significant effect on the urbanization rate.     

我国城镇化与经济增长的非线性关系分析——基于PSTR模型

文章基于我国30个省、市、自治区1990-2012年的面板数据,采用面板平滑转换(PSTR)模型研究了我国城镇化与经济增长间的非线性关系;选取滞后城镇化率、产业结构和能源消费作为阈值变量,使用工具变量法估计模型,其主要实证研究结果为:除低水平的人均能源消费量情况外,三个非线性模型都显示城镇化和经济增长间的正相关关系;随着城镇化水平的提升,城镇化对经济增长的弹性会下降,而随着第三产业比重和人均能源消费量的增加,该弹性会增加;弹性数值随着时间的推移呈现增加趋势,到2010年开始呈现下降趋势。文章最后分析了不同地区弹性系数值的差异情况。     

New evidence on the role of regional clusters and convergence in China (1952–2008)

A new panel method is applied to the case of Chinese provinces to analyze the existence of club convergence in terms of per capita income, labor productivity, and capital intensity, from 1952 to 2008. The advantage of this approach is that it takes into account the heterogeneity of Chinese regions in a nonlinear time-varying framework, where more attention is paid to the spatial dimension. This time-varying approach outperforms other methods used in the relevant literature for an economy in transition, such as China, that has undergone a significant transformation over the period under consideration. Our results indicate that Chinese regions have converged into clubs. However, it is observed that Heilongjiang is diverging in terms of labor productivity and capital intensity, while Liaoning and Guizhou display similar patterns in terms of labor productivity, and Shanxi and Hebei in terms of capital intensity. These results indicate that specific economic packages need to be implemented in the clusters that were identified, with special attention to those regions that show a divergence behavior, in order to guarantee the sustainability and equality of regional growth.     

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.     

China＇s Construction Land Expansion and Economic Growth： A Capital-output Ratio Based Analysis

Since 2003, the Chinese Government has included land policy as an important component of macroeconomic policy. The present paper analyzes the impact of the expansion of construction land on economic growth in terms of the capital-output ratio. Using provincial panel data for China from 1999to 2005, we conclude that the excess expansion of China＇s construction land led to an increase in the capital-output ratio. Therefore, expanding construction land has made little contribution to economic growth. This paper argues that contractionary land policy does not deter high economic growth, and is a necessary condition for sustainable economic growth.     

Public Debt and Economic Growth in Emerging Market Economies

This paper empirically studies the relationship between public debt and economic growth for selected emerging market economies by performing panel data estimations. The results reveal a statistically significant positive correlation between public debt and the subsequent growth rate of per capita gross domestic product (GDP). Population and investment are also positively correlated with per capita growth, whereas the initial level of real GDP per capita exerts a negative influence on growth, implying conditional convergence. Other variables such as the inflation rate, the trade balance or the exchange rate do not yield a statistically significant effect with respect to economic growth.     

Revisiting the Impact of Consumption Growth and Inequality on Poverty in Indonesia during Decentralisation

This article analyses the consumption growth elasticity and inequality elasticity of poverty in Indonesia, with a particular focus on the decentralisation period. Using provincial panel data, we show that the effectiveness of growth in alleviating poverty across provinces was greater during decentralisation—that is, between 2002 and 2010—than at any other point since 1984. The growth elasticity of poverty since 2002 is estimated to have been –2.46, which means that a 10% increase in average consumption per capita would have reduced the poverty rate by almost 25%. However, we also find that rising income inequality negated a quarter to a third of the 5.7-percentage-point reduction in the headcount poverty rate. This increasing inequality has contributed to a lower level of pro-poor growth than that maintained in Indonesia before decentralisation.     

私营企业就业人数的面板数据分析

为对我国私营企业就业人数的现状进行分析,以人口、人均GDP、高等学校数和高等学校毕业人数为指标,选取我国2001-2008年31个省市的多指标面板数据对我国私营企业就业人数进行分析。结果表明:私营企业就业人数、人口和人均GDP均为非平稳序列,私营企业就业人数与人口和人均GDP之间存在着显著地稳定关系;一个地区的人口数对该地区私营企业就业人数的作用大于人均GDP对该地区私营企业就业人数的作用。     

Evidence of panel stationarity from Chinese provincial and regional income

The aim of this paper is to examine whether Chinese provincial and regional real GDP and per capita real GDP are panel stationary for the period 1952–2003. We allow for multiple structural breaks based on a technique developed by Carrion-i-Silvestre et al. [Carrion-i-Silvestre, J. L., Barrio-Castro, T, D., & Lopez-Bazo, E. (2005). Breaking the panels: An application to the GDP per capita. Econometrics Journal, 8, 159–175]. Allowing for at most five structural breaks, we find that for 67% of the provinces, per capita real GDP is stationary; while we only find stationarity of real GDP for 17% of the provinces. However, when we extend the analysis to panel data models, we find statistically strong evidence of panel stationarity of Chinese provincial and regional income.     

新疆人均收入和收入不平等的增长与收敛——基于空间面板模型

新古典经济增长模型预测,随着时间的推移,人均收入的差距将会缩小,收入不平等将会逐渐趋同。本文利用1995年—2012年新疆15个地州的空间面板数据,采用跨部门模型和空间面板数据模型,并考虑空间交互效应来检验上述预测对新疆的正确性。研究结果显示,在对教育程度、失业、产业构成、人均收入的空间滞后增长以及区域固定效应进行调控之后,人均收入存在条件收敛,而收入不平等则存在无条件收敛。     

Old Wine in a New Bottle: Growth Convergence Dynamics in the EU

In this paper, we explore convergence of real per capita output across the European Union (EU) countries, as well as the transitional behavior of possible underlying factors that are responsible for any convergence or divergence pattern. The new panel convergence methodology developed by Phillips and Sul (2007) is employed in a production function growth accounting approach and data from the Total Economy Database and the Total Economy Growth Accounting Database. The empirical findings suggest that the EU countries form two distinct convergent clubs, exhibiting considerable heterogeneity in the underlying growth factors. These findings should help policy makers in designing appropriate growth-oriented programs as well as in setting priorities in their implementation.     

Regional convergence under declining population: The case of Japan

Using regional data from Japan, we examine how population growth affected regional convergence in Japan, where population decline has become conspicuous in several regions. The basic equation in the analysis allows two distinct features that previous studies rarely explored. First, we allow the coefficient of initial per capita output to change when the growth rate of population is lower than a threshold value. Second, we allow the growth rate of population to have ambiguous effects on the growth rate of per capita output. Our estimation results confirm the convergence hypothesis in Japan. However, we find that the declining speed of convergence was more conspicuous in the regions that had negative population growth. We also find that the decline in population growth, which was irrelevant for regional economic growth before 1995, came to have harmful impacts on regional economic growth after 1995. We believe this occurred because in societies with declining populations, economies of agglomeration had more significantly disappeared in poorer regions than in richer regions.     

Human capital estimates in China: New panel data 1985–2010

We introduce new provincial level panel data on human capital in China from 1985 to 2010. Our estimation of human capital is based on the Jorgenson–Fraumeni lifetime income approach modified to fit the Chinese data, thereby allowing a more comprehensive measurement of human capital than traditional partial measurements, such as education. Our provincial data are adjusted for purchasing power parity via a living-cost index as well as for real values so that all values are comparable across the provinces and time. We discuss various characteristics of the data, including total human capital, per capita human capital, and labor force human capital, which in turn are disaggregated based on gender and urban or rural location. Our human capital estimates are compared with the provincial physical capital estimates and provincial GDP. As an illustration, we also use the data to estimate a production function and to decompose China's economic growth from physical capital, human capital, and TFP. Our results, compared with those that use traditional specifications, reassure us as to the reliability of our new China human capital data.     

中部地区2010—2021年经济社会发展的时空变化特征

中部地区承东启西、连接南北，推动中部地区高质量均衡发展对构建国家发展新格局具有重大意义。利用2010—2021年中部六省经济社会统计数据，考察中部六省的经济规模、增长速度、人均GDP、常住人口、人口密度、城乡收入、城乡差距等的变化趋势与特征。研究表明：（1）中部六省的经济规模都在不断增加，但数量差距在扩大；中部六省的经济增长率在整体上呈现降速趋势，从高速增长转向中速增长；湖北、安徽、湖南的人均GDP的增长较快，而河南、山西、江西的人均GDP增长较慢。（2）中部六省中除湖南外，其他五省的常住人口规模总体呈现先增加，后减少的趋势。中部六省的人口密度除湖南省比较稳定外，其他都具有波动性特征。（3）中部六省的城镇居民人均可支配收入差别较小，而农村居民人均可支配收入之间差别较大。各省城乡居民收入差距整体上是缩小的，但山西、江西的城乡居民收入差距在个别年份波动较大，存在回弹的现象。最后提出积极寻求基于资源优势和市场导向的发展模式；推动以区域创新为基础的发展战略；把握国家发展战略、用好用活用足国家政策等建议。     

Human capital dynamics in China: Evidence from a club convergence approach

This paper investigates the evolution of human capital in China for 31 provinces over the period of 1985–2016 from a club convergence perspective. Per capita human capital stocks, estimated using the Jorgenson–Fraumeni lifetime income approach, are for the first time examined within a non-linear latent factor framework that allows to model a wide range of transition dynamics for each province along the path to convergence. The study finds no overall convergence between provinces in China, however, the results strongly support the existence of multiple convergence clubs. While a small group of provinces are converging toward the highest levels of human capital, most of the other provinces are failing to catch up and form separate clusters that converge to lower equilibria. These regional patterns provide new evidence on the increasing human capital gap between Chinese provinces, posing a significant challenge to a more inclusive and harmonious human and economic development.     

对外贸易、经济增长与趋同发展——基于东盟国家1990～2009年面板数据的实证研究

本文集中研究东盟国家贸易发展、经济增长与趋同问题,并对1990～2009年间东盟国家贸易发展指标对经济增长和经济趋同的作用和影响进行实证检验。我们得出结论:在促进经济增长方面,东盟国家致力于发展外向型经济、放松管制以及AFTA等制度安排是有效的;而在推动东盟国家经济发展趋同、缩小成员国收入水平差距方面,目前东盟各国的贸易发展政策和实践却没有显示出显著的积极效应。文章首先介绍了东盟国家贸易发展的基本情况;其次分析东盟各国经济增长和发展水平及存在的差距;再次就贸易发展指标与经济增长、收入差距之间的关系进行实证检验,分析其原因;最后进行总结,并就东盟贸易和经济发展以及对世界经济的影响等问题提了几点看法。     

基于空间面板模型的中国省际居民收入差距分析

文章利用空间面板模型研究我国省际居民收入差距及其影响因素的贡献性。根据2005-2012年的相关经济数据,分析31个省市自治区的居民人均收入的空间相关性,发现各地区居民收入有很强的空间依赖效应,高—高聚集地区和低—低聚集地区占比达到了80.6%。建立空间面板数据模型,发现经济增长水平、产业结构调整水平、城镇化水平和相邻地区的居民收入水平对我国省际居民收入差距有重要影响。其中经济增长水平差距对居民收入差距的影响度最高,达到40.31%,城镇化水平和相邻地区的居民收入水平的影响度也较高,分别达到11.56%和21.86%,而产业结构调整水平对收入差距的影响度较低。     

Environmental growth convergence among Chinese regions

Since the end of the 20th century, numerous studies have analyzed Chinese economic development to gauge whether China's rapid growth is sustainable. Most of these studies focused on assessing total factor productivity (TFP) in Chinese mainland provinces but suffered from methodological weaknesses by assuming constant returns to scale (CRS) for the production frontier and/or incorrectly modeling variables returns to scale (VRS) technology taking into account bad output such as carbon dioxide emissions. Our paper offers a right non-parametric programming framework based on weak disposability and VRS assumptions to estimate environmental growth convergence among Chinese regions characterized by size heterogeneity. We explicitly separate regional efficiency gaps into two components: The first studies the technical catching-up process on each one (technical effect), and the second reveals convergence or divergence in the combinations of input and output among regions (structural effect). Moreover, carbon shadow price levels for provinces can be derived through the dual version of our activity analysis framework. Our empirical work focuses on 30 Chinese regions from 1997 to 2010. The results emphasize that environmental growth convergence among regions has mainly relied on the structural effect. We find that the structural effect largely depends on the pollution cost convergence and not on the evolution of the relative prices of capital or labor. The carbon shadow price is increasing at an annual rate of 2.5% and was evaluated around 864 yuan per ton in 2010 in China while regional estimates show significant disparities at the beginning of the period.     

Disparity in factor contributions between coastal and inner provinces in post-reform China

The paper discusses China's post-reform regional economic growth imbalance relative to input disparity in technology, physical and human capital. Financial sources and types of ownership are used to construct physical capital. Technology is measured by innovation investment, and human capital is constructed from schooling years per capita. The results show that domestic bank loans and foreign-owned enterprises are important in coastal provinces, while state appropriation and state-owned enterprises are important in inner provinces. Technology and foreign investment have a larger impact on output growth in coastal provinces. Human capital is endogenous for coastal provinces, but is exogenous for inner provinces.     

城市化对二氧化碳排放的影响——来自中国时间序列和省际面板数据的经验证据

本文以中国为研究对象,同时考虑城市化对二氧化碳排放的影响的动态变化和地区差异,利用时间序列数据(1952-2009年)和省际面板数据(1995-2009年),分别以排放总量、人均排放量和碳强度等三类二氧化碳排放指标,使用多种估计方法实证检验了城市化对二氧化碳排放的影响。研究结论如下:(1)时间序列数据的经验估计表明,城市化对二氧化碳排放存在显著地正的影响,弹性在0.10%-0.12左右。(2)静态面板数据的经验估计表明,城市化与二氧化碳排放之间存在U型的非线性关系;而动态面板数据的经验估计表明,城市化对二氧化碳排放总量存在显著地负的影响,弹性为0.19%,而城市化对人均二氧化碳排放量和碳强度尽管存在负的影响,但在统计上并不显著。(3)时间序列数据和面板数据的经验估计均表明,城市化并非影响二氧化碳排放的关键因素,而人均GDP、能源强度、人口等对二氧化碳排放存在显著地正的影响。