南北经济收敛性与共同富裕

区域经济收敛有利于协调区域发展,从而有助于实现我国共同富裕的奋斗目标。然而我国幅员辽阔,区域经济差距由来已久。当下,从GDP总量的角度来看,我国区域经济格局呈南北经济差距扩大的态势。文章利用我国284个地级市文章中的284个地级市还包括4个直辖市。2000—2019年面板数据,探析了南北经济差距演变情况。首先,基于σ收敛和dagum基尼系数分析了人均实际GDP演变特征;其次,构建β收敛模型分析了南北经济收敛性,并考察了人力资本、物质资本、技术水平、对外开放和财政支出对南北经济收敛的影响;最后,文章从共同富裕的视角,对我国西南、西北和东北地区与其他地区的经济收敛性进行探讨。研究发现:(1)南北区域经济存在显著的俱乐部效应,南方内部经济由收敛演变为不具有显著收敛特征,而北方内部经济差距均呈收敛趋势;(2)适度的人力资本的流动不会导致经济发散,物质资本总体上延缓区域经济收敛速度,财政支出对区域经济收敛的作用有限,而技术水平和对外开放对经济收敛速度的影响不稳定;(3)从实现共同富裕的总体目标来看,西北地区的经济表现与其他地区存在显著差异,东北和西南的小部分区域也需要引起一定的重视。对此文章提出合理化建议,以期更好实现共同富裕目标。     

Economic Convergence in the African Continent: Closing the Gap

The paper attempts to analyse the conditional β‐convergence and its sources for 32 African countries over the period 1960‐2008. The augmented Solow model with both gross domestic product (GDP) per worker and per capita income is estimated using the dynamic system generalized methods of moments (GMM) technique with the panel data. This is the first study on the sources of conditional β‐convergence for African countries. According to the results of the augmented Solow model, income convergence rates are lower than those of GDP per worker. Moreover, total factor productivity convergence, human capital convergence and capital labour convergence are contributing towards the convergence of GDP per worker in Africa. This means that growth in the poorest African countries is being augmented by “catch‐up factor,” which is good news for them. However, convergence in terms of GDP per worker is not being fully translated into income per capita convergence. The demographic structure in the African continent with its record of persistent population growth has played an important role in lowering the income convergence of its countries.     

Openness and economic growth in developing countries

Openness and Economic Growth in Developing Countries. — Openness appears to have a strong impact on economic growth especially in DCs which typically exhibit a high share of physical capital in factor income and a low share of labor. In the neoclassical growth model with partial capital mobility, physical capital’s share in factor income determines the difference in the predicted convergence rates for open and closed economies. With a 60 percent share as in many DCs, the convergence rates should differ by a factor of 2.5. The regression results for a sample of open and closed DCs roughly confirm this hypothesis.     

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.     

中国西部地区经济增长源泉——基于人力资本与能源消费的双重约束

文章以中国经济发展相对落后的西部地区为研究对象,运用DEA方法将考虑人力资本与能源消费的经济增长分解为人力资本、复合物质资本、效率改善和技术进步四部分,探寻其经济增长的源泉,并对西部大开发前后进行了比较研究。发现以人力资本、物质资本和能源消费为代表的要素投入和以技术进步、效率提高为代表的全要素生产率对经济增长的推动作用几乎相等;但在西部大开发以后,以技术进步、效率提高为代表的全要素生产率对经济增长的推动作用呈现逐年上升的良好趋势。采用绝对收敛方程考察了中国西部地区经济增长与四类因素的收敛效应,发现中国西部地区出现了显著地经济收敛,而这种结果是技术效率、技术进步和物质资本积累的共同结果。采用Tobit模型深入分析了能源投入和人力资本对经济增长约束的传导机制,结果表明,中国西部地区经济增长可持续发展的重要源泉和动力在于转变经济增长方式。     

Effects of knowledge capital on total factor productivity in China: A spatial econometric perspective

The transformation of China into a knowledge based economy is one of the most intensively debated research issues in Economic Geography. The focus of this study is on effects of knowledge capital on manufacturing total factor productivity (TFP) in China through the lens of the regional knowledge capital model (KCM). The objective is to estimate the impact of region-internal and region-external knowledge capital — measured in terms of patents granted by the Chinese patent office — on TFP across Chinese regions. We derive a Spatial Durbin Model (SDM) for empirical testing, using panel data on 29 Chinese regions for the years 1988–2007. The results indeed point to a shift of Chinese productivity growth to a more knowledge based one, statistically confirming the impact of knowledge capital on regional TFP after 1998. Furthermore, this shift is not only based on region-internal knowledge capital, but also on inter-regional knowledge spillovers.     

创新要素流动、空间溢出与经济增长

运用引力模型测度创新要素流动量,以2001—2017年中国31个省区市为研究对象,构建OLS模型和空间杜宾模型,分析创新要素流动对区域经济增长的影响。研究发现：创新要素的区际流动对地区经济增长有正向影响;创新要素流动除了能够促进当地经济的增长,还可以通过知识溢出影响邻近地区的经济发展;区域异质性结果表明,东中部地区的创新要素流动能促进经济增长,但西部地区不显著。最后提出加强区域间的经济联系合作、出台创新活动相关政策、发挥人力资本的作用等政策建议。     

Human and knowledge capital: A contribution to the empirics of state economic growth

Considerable debate persists over the prospects for regional economic convergence and the nature of economic growth in a sub-national context. Although endogenous growth theories have been invoked to explain persistent regional income gaps and related empirical phenomena, traditional models have yet to be fully discredited. This paper utilizes a more complete specification of a traditional growth model in an effort to better explain variations in regional per capita income and growth levels. The authors' effort involves a panel analysis of U.S. Gross State Product data that enables controlling for variations in underlying production technologies. They focus on the important role of both human and knowledge capital in specifying regional dimensions of productivity and growth. The use of alternative and unique definitions for knowledge capital inputs leads to an improved empirical understanding of the regional growth process.An earlier version of this paper was presented at the North American Meetings of the Regional Science Association International, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, Nov. 11–14, 1999.     

Measures of human capital and the mechanics of economic growth

We examine the mechanism by which human capital affects economic growth and convergence, using provincial level panel data from China. We specify alternative measures of human capital and apply them to an enhanced growth model, which we estimate parametrically, nonparametrically, and with a threshold model. Our results show that economic convergence is pronouncedly conditional on human capital across all measures. The positive “benefit of being backward” due to lower initial income is almost trumped by the negative impact of low levels of human capital in the poorest areas.     

高铁能否促进产业结构升级:基于资源再配置的视角

高铁建设进一步完善了我国的交通网络体系,这对地区经济时空格局将产生深远影响。文章采用2000-2016年地级市辖区数据构建"反事实"框架下的双重差分模型,研究高铁开通对我国地区产业结构升级的因果净效应。结果发现,高铁建设显著提升了地区产业结构由低级向高级转变的高级化进程,且东、中部地区高铁开通的净效应显著,西部地区却不明显,稳健性检验结果依然显著。进一步从资源再配置视角检验高铁建设的作用机制,研究发现,高铁开通加速了地区劳动力流通和资本积累,并且高铁建设主要通过提升资本和劳动力再配置效应来实现地区产业结构由低级向高级的动态转化。同时劳动力和资本再配置效率存在明显的区域差异性,即东、中部地区劳动力和资本再配置效率显著高于西部地区,具有潜在的"俱乐部收敛"特征。     

On Persistent Poverty in a Rich Country

We examine differences in income within the United States, and the regions of persistent poverty that have arisen, using a newly assembled county‐level data set linking 19th century Census data with contemporary data. We identify the roles of current differences in aggregate production technologies and factor endowments, together with contributions of historical institutions, culture, geography, and human capital. We allow for possible cross‐county factor mobility via a correlated random effects GMM estimator and find evidence of significant regional differences in production technologies. Our decompositions of the poor/nonpoor income gap suggest that at least three‐fourths of the gap is explained by differences in productive factors. Persistently poor counties are different (and poorer) primarily because they have lower levels of factors of production, not because they use the factors they have less efficiently. Together, historical and contemporary human capital explain over half of the overall income gap between persistently poor and nonpoor counties.     

中国区域经济收敛与地区差距的再检验

本文首先收集1985—2006年中国28个省市数据验证中国区域经济增长的条件β收敛和绝对β收敛,然后运用Blinder—Oaxaca分解方法来分析造成我国东部地区与中西部地区发展差距的原因。实证结果显示,我国自1985年来区域经济增长没有表现出收敛性。当我们将全国划分为东部地区和中西部地区后,我们发现东部地区经济增长收敛,而中西部地区经济增长不收敛。Blinder—Oaxaca分解结果显示,中西部地区与东部地区经济发展差距扩大的最主要原因是中西部地区实物资本投资不足。随着改革开放的深入,外商直接投资和开放程度在地区差距中发挥的作用越来越大,而教育和地理位置的优惠政策的作用则越来越小。     

Human capital quality and the regional economic growth: Evidence from China

China's economic development has advanced from a high-speed to a high-quality growth stage in recent years. The optimization and upgrading of the economic structure require high-quality human capital to support an innovation-driven economy. In this paper, a general equilibrium model of human capital (Xiang & Yeaple, 2018) is applied to estimate the cognitive and non-cognitive productivities based on Chinese provincial-level macro-data and individual labor's micro-data from 2008 to 2017. The weighted power mean of cognitive and non-cognitive productivities helps calculate the provincial-level human capital quality index (HCQI), which provides a realistic estimate of human capital quality. We find that the improvement of the HCQI leads to convergence in economic growth in China's provinces. HCQI can help explain the differences in economic growth levels in different regions of China. Our study provides a constructive step in understanding cognitive and non-cognitive abilities and HCQI in China, which could help guide education investment policy in China and its provinces.     

区域人力资本配置、科技创新对经济增长的作用机理研究

随着经济全球化和知识经济时代的到来,区域人力资本配置通过影响科技创新能力对经济增长的作用正在日益凸显。文章遵循这三者之间的作用机理着重分析两个方面:一方面,从不同类型人力资本对科技创新作用不同的角度出发,优化区域人力资本配置,促进区域人力资本结构优化,进而提升区域科技创新能力;另一方面,科技创新的内在效应、科技创新推动产业结构优化、科技创新加速知识积累共同作用于区域经济持续快速增长。     

A GROWTH MODEL FOR SOUTH AFRICA

We examine the South African growth experience during 1960‐2005 using an intertemporal growth model. The model combines old growth theory investment dynamics and new growth theory endogenous productivity growth. The consumption and investment decisions are intertemporal and assume open capital markets. Structural change is captured by separating the traded and nontraded sectors, and sectoral productivity growth is determined in a barriers‐to‐growth framework. Calibration of the model shows how the growth experience combines neoclassical convergence, technology spillovers with barriers and productivity‐investment interaction. Counterfactual analysis shows the growth costs of sanctions and protectionism. The suggested model is an alternative to existing growth modelling in South Africa, in which investments are short‐sighted and productivity growth is imposed exogenously.     

人力资本质量、异质性对FDI区位选择的影响

区域人力资本对外商直接投资(FDI)影响的研究多集中在人力资本平均质量上,却忽视了人力资本在区域内部也存在结构差异,即异质性问题.文章构建了一个全面考虑人力资本质量与异质性的FDI区位选择模型,对我国各省及东中西三个经济地带的实证研究,不仅验证了人力资本质量与 FDI 的正向相关性,更得出人力资本异质性与负向相关这一重要结论;人力资本异质性对的影响程度甚至强于人力资本质量.     

More similar and less equal: Economic growth in the European regions

More Similar and Less Equal: Economic Growth in the European Regions. — This paper examines the growth process of 109 European regions using a new data base. Applying various statistical tools, it concentrates on per capita income and labor productivity. The main results are the following: There has been a clear process of aggregate productivity convergence across the European regions over the 1980s. At the sectoral level, there has not been convergence in agriculture, while the industrial and services sectors show ß-convergence. Most crucially, the regional dispersion in per capita income has remained almost constant so that the differences in wealth conditions of the European citizens are still extremely high.     

基于突变级数法的区域风险投资环境评价

文章在已有研究基础上,运用突变级数法模型,建立了区域风险投资环境评价系统,并以2005年我国30个省区市为样本进行了实证分析,进一步探讨我国区域风险投资环境能力的分布特点,并提出有关政策建议。     

Immigration and the path dependence of education: the case of German‐speakers in São Paulo,Brazil (1840–1920)

This article studies the path dependence of human capital accumulation in the state of São Paulo, Brazil. It focuses on the impacts of German‐speaking immigrants on education through three channels: their share of the population in the nineteenth century, their on‐the‐job skills, and the schools they founded. Using a new dataset based on almanacs from 1873 and 1888, these effects are evaluated for the nineteenth, early twentieth, and early twenty‐first centuries. The article shows that the institutionalized demand for education of these immigrants, reflected by the establishment of schools, was their main contribution to the accumulation of human capital. The effect of German schools on educational levels required a period to mature and dissipated over time. Nevertheless, its influence was substantial at the beginning of the twentieth century, affecting enrolment levels in private and state schools, a result that suggests the existence of spillover and contagion effects. Moreover, current indicators for stocks and flows of human capital in São Paulo are strongly associated with their historical levels. At the same time, this path dependence is conditional on the type of school: while a positive persistence is found for the private system throughout the twentieth century, convergence occurred in state schools.     

New evidence about regional income divergence in China

There are many empirical studies trying to test if there is income convergence across the provinces of China. In this paper, we bring new information to the current literature by applying non-linear panel unit root test of Exponential Smooth Auto-Regressive Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ESTAR-ADF) unit root test developed by Cerrato et al. (2008) to the time series data for the period 1952–2003. The number of converging provinces decreases in the post-reform period when using panel ESTAR-ADF test. Furthermore, our results find evidence of increasing regional disparity that has been prevailing in China since the open door economic reforms of the late 1970s, which confirms the view of Pedroni and Yao (2006) that interprovincial inequalities have been widening since 1978.In addition, we also examine the determinants of conditional convergence in China. The results indicate that low inflation, transport and telecommunication infrastructure, and trade openness could stimulate economic growth in China. Human capital also play a significant role in growth, and it exhibits non-linearity between human capital and growth in the sense that at low levels of human capital the effect on growth is negative and became positive at middle levels.