Key Factors of Recent Chinese Provincial Economic Growth

The aim of this paper is to analyse the factors that affected Chinese provincial economic growth after the reforms of the early 1980s, through a panel analysis (period 1986–2001). The production function approach focuses on human capital, ‘space-serving’ infrastructure, sectoral allocation of labour and institutional changes. Indices relevant for the analysis are elaborated and provincial capital stocks are estimated. The empirical results indicate the positive role of capital stock, human capital and physical infrastructure and underline that sectoral allocation of labour and institutional changes affected the level of aggregate output. A redistribution policy in favour of the inland provinces needs to be implemented so that human capital and infrastructure can be enhanced, bottlenecks can be overcome and investment can be attracted.     

Does international knowledge spillover always lead to a positive trickle down?

This paper demonstrates the negative effects of positive international knowledge spillovers on economic growth. In other words, we obtain the possibility that educational investment for human capital is crowded out under global economic growth. To this end, we assume the phenomenon of international knowledge spillover, effects of population growth on human capital accumulation, and non-unity intertemporal elasticity of substitution in an endogenous growth model along the lines developed by Arnold. This model comprises R&D activities along the lines proposed by Jones and human capital accumulation along the lines proposed by Uzawa and Lucas. The results show that even if international spillover increases, low-growth traps without human capital investment emerge in some cases, for example, an economy with a large intertemporal elasticity of substitution and a high population growth rate.     

Health investment,physical capital accumulation,and economic growth

This paper analyzes the effect of health investment, and hence of health capital, on physical capital accumulation and long-run economic growth in an extended Ramsey model with an Arrow–Romer production function and a Grossman (1972) utility function. The paper concludes that economic growth is related to both the health growth rate and the health level. While growth in health capital always facilitates economic growth, the gross effect of health level on the rate of economic growth depends on how it affects physical capital accumulation. If the negative effect of health on economic growth through its influence on physical capital accumulation is not taken into consideration, then health level has a positive effect on the rate of economic growth by improving the efficiency of labor production. However, since health investment may crowd out physical capital investment and thus influence physical capital accumulation, excessive investment in health may have a negative effect on economic growth. Empirical tests of these theoretical hypotheses using panel data from individual provinces of China produce results that are consistent with our theoretical conclusions.     

Public capital formation and labor productivity growth in Mexico

This paper addresses the important question whether public investment spending on economic infrastructure enhances economic growth and labor productivity in Mexico. Following the lead of the endogenous growth literature, it presents a modified production function which explicitly includes the positive or negative externality effects generated by additions to the public capital stock. Using cointegration analysis, the paper proceeds to estimate a dynamic labor productivity function for the 1955–94 period that incorporates the impact of the growth rate in the stocks of both private and public capital (as opposed to the flows) and the economically active population (EAP) (rather than the rate of population growth). The results suggest that (lagged) increases in public investment spending on economic infrastructure—as opposed to overall public investment spending—have a positive and highly significant effect on the rate of labor productivity growth. In addition, the estimates suggest that increases in government consumption expenditures may have a negative effect on the rate of labor productivity growth, thus suggesting that the composition of government spending may also play an important role in determining the rate of labor productivity growth. Finally, the findings call into question the politically expedient policy in many Latin American countries of disproportionately reducing public capital expenditures on economic and social infrastructure to meet targeted reductions in the fiscal deficit as a proportion of GDP.     

Sectoral shifts and rates of profit

Summary In this paper the role of the capital market is analysed onthe base of a dynamic two-sector model of a closed economy. The way in which the allocation of investment is related to sectoral differences in the rate of profit and to diverging sectoral capital needs as well, turns out to be of great importance for the whole economy. Conclusions are drawn with regard to the long-run equality of profits after an initial disturbance. The role of the capital market is analysed too in connection with the functioning of sectoral labour markets. As far as unemployment and differing sectoral unemployment rates are concerned, the importance of the labour markets is obviously overwhelming. On that base it is possible to make some remarks on macroeconomic and sectoral investment policies with regard to employment.     

The impact of foreign direct investment and human capital on economic growth: Evidence from Chinese cities

Using a panel of Chinese cities over the period 1991–2010, we examine the determinants of economic growth, focusing on the role of foreign direct investment (FDI) and human capital. Consistent with the predictions of a human capital-augmented Solow model, we find that the growth rate (along the path to the steady-state income level) of per capita GDP is negatively correlated with population growth rate and positively correlated with investment rate in physical capital and human capital. We find that FDI has a positive effect on the per capita GDP growth rate and this effect is intensified by the human capital endowment of the city. The latter suggests that one way that human capital contributes to growth is to serve as a facilitator for technology transfers stemming from FDI. Furthermore, we find some suggestive evidence that the FDI-human capital complementary effect is stronger for technology-intensive FDI than for labor-intensive FDI. Our results are robust to alternative measures of human capital, model specifications, and estimation methods.     

New capital estimates for China

Data on physical capital are an indispensable part of economic growth and efficiency studies. In the case of China, economy-wide fixed asset series are usually derived by aggregating gross fixed capital formation (net of depreciation) over time, and sectoral/ownership-specific series by correcting the limited official fixed asset data available. These procedures, to varying degrees, ignore that (i) gross fixed capital formation does not equal investment, (ii) investment does not equal the value of fixed assets newly created through investment, (iii) depreciation is an accounting measure that bears no necessary relation to changes in the production capacity of fixed assets, (iv) official fixed asset data, where available, incorporate significant revaluations in the 1990s, and (v) “net fixed assets” do not measure the contribution of fixed assets to production.This paper derives economy-wide fixed asset values for 1953–2003, correcting for these shortcomings. It uses both the traditional, cumulative approach and a new, so far unexplored method of combining economy-wide depreciation values and an economy-wide depreciation rate to directly yield economy-wide fixed assets. The derived fixed asset time series are evaluated in a comparison with each other as well as with series in the literature, leading to the recommendation of a specific choice of fixed asset time series.     

The Machine–Building Industry and Austria's Great Depression after 1873

Adopting a sectoral perspective, this article is concerned with the pattern of economic growth in the late nineteenth-century Habsburg empire. The timing and extent of changes in machinery output and investment support the notion of a great depression in Austria after the 1873 stock market crash and match with the direction of capital flows. The post-1873 outflow of capital from Austria to Hungary, which was eventually reversed in the early 1890s, hampered industrial investment in the western part of the empire, and stimulated expansion in the eastern part. The evidence casts doubt on the revisionist view which postulates steady and uninterrupted growth of the Austrian economy between 1870 and 1913.     

Patents,foreign direct investment and economic growth in Australia, 1860–2010

We examine the long run relationship between innovation and economic development in Australia, using 150 years of data on patenting activity, and aggregate and sectoral economic indicators. Our initial results point to several important causal relationships, particularly the effects of patents on real GDP and of private capital formation on patents. We delve deeper at the sector level and find important causal relationships of patents with real foreign direct investment (FDI) since World War II. Australia's dependence on FDI for private capital formation served as an important stimulus for knowledge creation in key sectors including manufacturing, agriculture and mining.     

我国东、中、西部地区经济增长差异的因素分析:1952～2005年

本文采用Solow的增长核算方法,对1952～2005年间我国东、中、西部地区经济增长差异的因素进行测算和分析。分析结果表明:①我国地区经济增长主要来自于资本积累,全要素生产率增长对经济增长的贡献不大,劳动投入的贡献非常小;②资本投入增长速度差异是地区增长差异的主要决定因素,促进区域协调发展,需要国家给予中、西部地区更多投资倾斜政策,同时中西部地区自身应注重基础设施,人才环境等投资环境的培育和完善以吸引外来投资;③地区增长差异在一定程度上表现为生产率增长差异,加快西部地区技术进步和效率改善速度,提高其全要素生产率是缩小我国地区增长差异、继续推进西部大开发战略的有效途径之一。     

农村家庭人力资本投资:基于现状与基本模型的框架分析

现代经济发展的大量实践表明,人力资本是一国经济发展速度和水平的最终决定因素。在农业现代化以及工业化和城市化的进程中,农村人力资本投资的增长是关系到劳动力素质提高,生活与就业条件改善,以及促进我国国民经济与社会长期稳定发展的重大课题。本文主要从农村居民家庭的微观角度,分析了农村人力资本投资的现状、影响因素以及农村家庭如何进行人力资本投资决策,在此基础上提出了改善农村人力资本投资不足的政策与措施。     

The economics of education in Bophuthatswana

Education usually correlates with economic development. In the transformation process of any traditional society education is most often assumed to provide the solution to or stimulus for development. Many governments are convinced that education or, more generally, capital investment in human beings contributes as much to economic growth as does investment in capital equipment. As a result the proportion of public expenditure on education in developing countries is often very high. This paper is an attempt to point out what the effects of public expenditure on education in Bophuthatswana are, given constraints such as economic efficiency and equity. In Bophuthatswana these economic effects of education tend to go beyond the borders of the country.     

Is the Export-led Growth Hypothesis Enough to Account for China＇s Growth？

One of the missing pieces preventing us from understanding recent Chinese economic development is the role played by openness and capital accumulation in this process. The question is whether the sharp economic＇ growth that the Chinese economy has experienced is another case of export-led growth due to the open-door policy or whether, on the contrary, this growth has been caused by high domestic savings and investment rates （and the consequent capital accumulation）. To answer this question, we employed an empirical framework of the cointegrated vector autoregressive model. The empirical results show that both investment （in physieal capital and R＆D） and exports, as well as the exchange rate policy, are relevant factors in explaining China＇s long-run economic growth over the past 4 decades.     

The role of infrastructure in China’s regional economic growth

This study investigates the relationship between infrastructure capital and China's regional economic growth for the period 1990–2013. Four types of infrastructure are considered: electricity generating capacity, roadway, railway, and telecommunications. Using a vector error correction model, we find mixed support across time period and region for the contribution of infrastructure investment to economic development. With regard to road construction in lagging regions in particular, the impact appears to have become negative under a program of ramped up efforts. The results resonate with the theoretical literature on the inverse U-shaped relationship between infrastructure investment and growth which posits a “crowding-out effect” of private capital when infrastructure investment becomes too dominant.     

China's economic development: does exchange rate and FDI nexus matter?

This study aims to investigate the relationship between China's exchange rate, foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows, and economic development. We applied the bound testing approach on aggregate level data from 1981 to 2013. The results showed that the Chinese economy benefitted from a lower exchange rate over this period, and that there was a direct link between FDI inflows and economic development on an aggregate level both in the long and short run. The results of the Granger causality test identified a long‐ and short‐run association among these variables. The GMM estimations with dummies for financial crises and RMB exchange rate policy fluctuations also confirmed the growth enhancing impact of the exchange rate and FDI inflows. To promote sustainable economic development in the future, China should focus on improving the levels of domestic investment and human capital, as well as supervising the level of openness and capital controls.     

人力资本投资结构及其对经济增长的影响——基于扩展MRW模型的内生增长理论与实证研究

本文针对已有的关于人力资本投资的理论研究往往只关注人力资本投资数量而忽视人力投资结构研究的现状,把教育和健康看作两种资本,分析了人力资本投资的具体构成形式。假设人力资本由教育资本和健康资本按照Cobb—Douglas生产技术形式组合生成。通过扩展Mankiw、Romer和Weil（1992）模型（简称MRW模型）,构建了一个新的内生经济增长模型。理论分析结果表明：人力资本投资结构制约着经济增长,人力资本积累和存量都对经济产生重要影响。最后文章以理论分析为基础构建计量经济模型,利用1978—2004年中国29个省、市、自治区的面板数据实证分析了人力资本的积累和存量以及教育资本和健康资本对中国经济增长的影响。实证结果表明较好地支持了本文的理论拓展分析。     

Business start-up regulations and the complementarity between foreign and domestic investment

This paper shows that the complementarity between foreign direct investment (FDI) and domestic investment significantly depends on regulations required to start a new domestically owned business in host economies. It finds evidence that FDI crowds out domestic investment in countries with entry regulation cost above a certain level, and many of these countries are in the bottom quartile of GDP per capita. Reforms in business start-up regulations can therefore play a critical role in enhancing the complementarity between foreign and domestic investment and thereby increase entrepreneurship and economic growth in low-income countries. The analysis takes into account other significant factors which affect domestic investment such as the cost of capital, government’s economic growth track record, institutional quality, and market size.     

“金砖四国”社会折现率的影响因素分析

社会折现率是国家公共项目决策中需要重点研究的一个参数,但数据显示,不同国家之间以及一个国家在经济发展的不同阶段,社会折现率都存在较大的差异。资本的稀缺程度、经济增长速度的快慢和通货膨胀率的高低是影响社会折现率的主要因素。本文通过1997年～2006年中国、印度、俄罗斯、巴西("金砖四国")社会折现率主要影响因素的研究发现,经济增长的高速度是中国和印度社会折现率的主要支撑因素,同时我国较低的贷款利率和通货膨胀率一定程度上抵消了经济高速增长带来的高折现率数值,因此折现率低于印度;高通货膨胀率是俄罗斯社会折现率较高的主要原因;巴西尽管通货膨胀率和贷款利率处于较高的水平,但较低的经济增长速度使其社会折现率在"金砖四国"中处于最低的位置。     

资本账户开放的门槛效应及路径研究

文章基于70个国家面板数据,实证检验了开放资本账户的增长效应。研究结果表明,资本账户开放具有国别差异,高收入国家开放资本账户的增长效应显著大于中低收入国家。在引入制度质量、货币政策、财政政策、对外开放度和金融发展5个初始条件指标建立动态门槛模型,研究发现,资本账户开放对经济增长的影响是非线性的,初始条件较低时资本账户开放不利于经济增长,当初始条件越过门槛值后,资本账户开放表现出积极的增长效应。结合跨境资本异质性和门槛效应,进一步发现开放直接投资的门槛最低,经济效应最大;开放债务投资的门槛最高,经济效应最小;开放股权投资的门槛效应介于前二者之间。经验分析为中国资本账户开放条件以及路径提供了参考。     

我国农业经济发展水平及其影响因素实证研究

农业经济发展与农业生产自然制约条件、农业人力资本投入、农业生产资本投入、农业生产技术、农业经济的市场作用、农业生产条件制约因素等密切相关.本文选取反映农业经济增长的13个指标,对其1980-2012年的时间序列运用主成分回归分析与其误差修正模型,研究我国农业经济发展全要素生产率及影响我国农业长期经济发展与短期经济发展的因素.结果表明,影响我国农业长期与短期经济发展的主要因素按影响力大小依次为农业生产条件、市场作用、自然制约条件、农业生产资本、农业生产技术、人力资源.